


Two of a kind

by WindsOfTime



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Action/Adventure, Before Crisis spoilers, Cliffhangers, Dirge of Cerberus Spoilers, F/M, M/M, Psychic Bond, The Author Regrets Everything, Time Travel Fix-It, basically fitting the entire compilation in 120k words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-05-01 14:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 129,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5209196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindsOfTime/pseuds/WindsOfTime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six years old Cloud Strife was only minding his own business, but randomly getting an older brother was kind of awesome. Even if he now lived inside his head and claimed his name was Cloud Strife too.<br/>(Crossposted from FF.net)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Two of a kind (Chinese Translation)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14498919) by [Lili_Marleen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lili_Marleen/pseuds/Lili_Marleen)



> I'm finally posting this on Ao3 to prepare for the end of my hiatus on Monday. I'm taking the occasion to reread and straighten up the oldest chapters, but I won't have the time to go over everything (and as a reminder, english is not my first language). So if you're reading this for the first time, expect a little more language mistakes in the middle before it starts getting better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter corrected on 11/14/15.

When Cloud was six, he started talking to an imaginary friend. Although he was maybe a bit old for it, his mother thought nothing of it. Cloud had trouble getting along with kids his age, and she figured it was logical that something like that happened sooner or later.

Thus, she was only a little surprised when Cloud said while eating his breakfast one day:

“Mom, you know! I have a new friend. But you can’t see him!”

“Really?” she asked. “Why is that?”

He happily pointed to his head.

“’Cause he is in there.”

“Is that so? Is he tiny-tiny, then?”

He shrugged with a pout.

“I dunno. I can’t see him either.”

She hummed and poured more orange juice in his glass.

“Is he nice?”

“Yes! All the time. But not at first. At first, he made my head hurt a bit. And sometimes, he says things I don’t understand. He’s a bit weird, but that’s okay, ‘cause he is still pretty nice.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Of course Cloud would create a friend smarter than him. It was only natural, as he thought others kids too immature to be interesting.

“Well, what’s his name?”

He scrunched his nose.

“That’s why it’s weird! He says his name is Cloud. But I told him it can’t be, ‘cause that’s _my_ name. Right? That’s weird, huh?”

Well, it certainly was unusual. She raised her eyebrows.

“Hum… Let’s see, what kind of person is he?”

“What kind? Huh… He is nice… but sad, too. Yes, it’s like he is sad all the time. And lost, I think.”

“Lost?”

“Yeah. Like he doesn’t know where he is, or where he is supposed to go, and that makes him really sad.”

“Really? Well then, he is nothing like my Cloud, is he? Because my Cloud is a white, fluffy cloud, like you see in a warm summer day. And this Cloud sounds more like a raincloud, doesn’t he?”

“A raincloud?”

“Yes. Why don’t you call him that? Rain for short. It’s nice, don’t you think?”

“Rain…”

He looked to the ceiling and seemed to think for a moment. Then he smiled widely.

“He says it’s okay! Rain. Alright, I’ll call him that. Thanks, mom!”

He finished his plate and ran outside. Well, it’d pass on its own, she figured.

 

* * *

 

Rain slept a lot. Most of the time, he’d only be here a couple of hours per week. Cloud didn’t understand why he needed to sleep so much, but Rain didn’t seem to know either. Still, it was nice having someone to speak to when he was awake. Rain always understood everything he said, it was like he read his thoughts or something. Then again, maybe it was the case, what with him being in his head and all.

 

* * *

 

When Cloud was nine, the mayor’s daughter fell from the bridge in Mt. Nibel and hurt herself. Cloud liked Tifa. She was his neighbour and was always nice to him. He had been with her, but he hadn’t managed to catch her on time.

Mr Lockhart was really angry and said it was all Cloud’s fault Tifa had been injured. Cloud knew he was right, that he should have been more careful, should have been able to protect Tifa.

The other kids, too, thought it was his fault. He started fighting a lot with them. Rain eventually awakened in the middle of a fight and said it was stupid of him. If he wasn’t strong enough to protect people important to him, obviously, he should be busy getting stronger.

Cloud agreed. Besides, Rain had slept all throughout Tifa’s accident and he was upset when Cloud told him about it. After that, he could tell that Rain made a lot of effort to sleep less.

Rain did his best to teach him how to become stronger. Cloud also went to see Zangan, who was a martial arts master, but he discovered he was not very good at martial arts… When Tifa also came to ask Zangan to teach her, she quickly became much better than him. He was impressed, and he started liking Tifa even more. He didn’t dare to talk to her too much after the accident, especially since he didn’t like her friends at all, but he really liked what little time he spent with her.

When he told Rain, his friend was really amused for some reason.

Along the years, he had realized that Rain was unique. No one else but him had someone like Rain talking in their head like that. His mom thought he spent too much time talking with him, so he stopped telling her about him, and he didn’t tell anyone else. Rain was like a secret brother that no one but him knew about. And to him, that was what he had become: a big brother, who was not here that often, but who was awesome and always had a lot of good advice for him when he was.

So when Rain said they should try getting into the Shinra Mansion, which all kids in Nibelheim knew to be haunted, Cloud was scared, but he agreed.

They didn’t manage to get in, though. There were a lot of monsters in there, and Cloud was in no way strong enough to beat more than one or two of them.

He came back home bloodied and dizzy from the blows he had taken, and his mother screamed and nearly fainted. She called the doctor. It turned out he had even been poisoned by one of those things. His mother grounded him for months.

It didn’t matter much, though, because Cloud didn’t feel like getting out. Rain was really upset that they had failed. He tried hiding it, but Cloud could still tell. Cloud said they would try again, but Rain said no, that it was too dangerous. So Rain was feeling upset, and guilty because Cloud was grounded. And Cloud felt guilty and worthless because he couldn’t even do a single thing Rain asked of him.

He really wasn’t strong enough.

 

* * *

 

A few miserable months later, the Wutai War reached a peak. It became impossible not to hear about it, even in Nibelheim. At that time, an extraordinary SOLDIER was quickly climbing the ranks of Shinra military. He was rumoured as having a keen strategic mind, and he was nothing short of unstoppable on the battlefield. He was even a charismatic enough man that under his command, every soldier seemed to surpass himself.

SOLDIER counted in its ranks many incredible men, but even amongst them, Sephiroth was swiftly becoming a legend.

Or so, at least, is what came to Cloud’s ears.

In Nibelheim, the television had bad reception. The images were blurry and the sounds sometimes inexistent. Nonetheless, Cloud was entranced. Every time the Wutai War came on the news, he had to be here. His mother complained, as she didn’t appreciate stories of bloody victories at dinner time, but she let him do as he pleased since she didn’t remember ever seeing him this enthusiastic about anything before.

When he awoke during the news, Rain was very quiet. Cloud could feel he was in a weird mood at those times, but he kept to himself and never said anything. Over the years, Cloud had begun to understand Rain a little better. He knew there were a lot of things his brother of choice wasn’t telling him. Rain had a lot of secrets, he was sure of it. But he didn’t feel he had any right to ask him for the truth, not when he wasn’t even able to grant him the one favour he had ever asked.

That’s why, one day, he made up his mind.

“Hey Rain, I’m gonna be a SOLDIER.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter corrected on 11/14/15.

“Hey!”

Who?... It sounded from so far away…

Cloud came back to himself, dazed. Everything hurt and he barely heard himself groan.

“Cloud! Talk to me!”

That’s right, that voice, it was Zack. The SOLDIER First Class he had befriended on the way here.

The thought sent a strange ripple through his mind and he realized with a start that Rain was awake.

_‘Zack? You know him already?’_

“Cloud!”

They both sounded so worried, suddenly, that he didn’t know which one to answer first. He concentrated on pushing on his arms, tried to stand, and flopped right back down on his ass. Zack was immediately there, reaching for him, and as Cloud’s eyes landed on his face, he felt Rain’s anxiety increase tenfold. He tried to stay on track.

“We’re all right,” he said, holding a hand to stop his friend.

Because, really, it wasn’t just him. It successfully diverted Zack’s attention towards Tseng, who was slumped a bit further against a wall. With the SOLDIER thus occupied, Cloud was freed from having to answer two lines of inquiry at the same time. Rain now seemed hesitant, confused.

_‘This place is…’_

Cloud let his eyes wander around the dilapidated building for his benefit.

_‘Modeoheim. I was sent on a mission here, as support for catching that First Class SOLDIER Genesis something and the scientist guy who defected with him.’_

_‘That’s right. That’s when I… you… met Zack…’_

He stopped mid-sentence and Cloud felt his attention switch to the words that a wounded Tseng was muttering to Zack.

“… catch Hollander. Angeal… is waiting for you.”

Oh yeah, Angeal, the man who had knocked both Tseng and Cloud down without breaking a sweat.

When they had found Genesis, Zack had stayed behind to fight him while Cloud and Tseng had chased that Hollander guy, the scientist, but they had been intercepted. Cloud had been too surprised by the wings on the guy’s back—the wings!—to really feel insulted at being beaten so easily, especially when the Turk ate the ground too. Still, he hadn’t tried to kill them, which was always nice.

The humour was lost on Rain, whose mind he could feel whirring so fast he was starting to get nervous himself. A few monsters showed up out of nowhere, and before Cloud could muster the energy to haul his exhausted and aching body to his feet, Zack took care of them. SOLDIER… They were really something…

Tseng convinced Zack to go on without them, and with a last worried glance, the First Class disappeared through a doorway.

_‘No!’_

Cloud started, earning a tired peek from Tseng. It was the first time he had ever heard Rain so alarmed, apart maybe from that disaster in the Shinra Mansion.

_‘Cloud, you have to follow him! Hurry!’_

_‘But…’_

_‘Something terrible will happen to Zack if you don’t… if only I could_ remember _… Cloud, you have to hurry!’_

Something terrible, and to Zack? That was enough to get him moving. He barely knew the guy, but damn it, he _liked_ him. He never thought before meeting him that a SOLDIER could be so friendly to a mere infantryman.

Tseng frowned at him as he staggered with difficulty to his feet.

“What are you doing?”

“Zack…” he gasped. “Have to help him…”

“I doubt you’d be of much use to him, even if you were in perfect health,” Tseng answered, and managed to sit. “You saw what Angeal…”

“Angeal!”

The name produced a reaction from Rain. Cloud nearly tumbled to the ground under the onslaught of a massive headache. Whatever Rain was trying to remember, he was trying too hard, but Cloud didn’t dare protest. It was obviously very important.

_‘Never met him…_ Why _did I never meet him? And the sword, the_ sword _…’_

Their thoughts intertwined until Cloud barely knew what he was saying anymore.

“Have to go… Angeal might… do something terrible…”

Tseng watched him with a piercing gaze as he made his way to the door, but he didn’t try to stop him. Rain’s intuition, whatever it was, suddenly coalesced into something whole, cold and hard like a blade, which he kept to himself with grim determination. Freed of the weight of his thoughts, Cloud breathed easier and focused on forcing his battered body to jog.

His ribs protested while he was picking his way through the decaying rooms and catwalks, and on one occasion he had to duck out of the way of wandering monsters. Thankfully, Rain always seemed to make a better use of his senses than he did himself and he had noticed them in time to avoid them. Following the trail of monster corpses Zack had left in his wake was easy enough, but Cloud still chafed at how slow he was—he had already disappointed Rain once; this time, there was no way he was letting Rain _and_ Zack down! Even if he had to run on rusty pipes clinging shakily to a wall a dozen of meters above the ground… but he sure felt better once back on stable land.

_‘There! Do you hear that?’_

Cloud listened, and sure enough, faint voices were coming from up ahead. And as he was heading there, a shout.

“Stop it!”

Cloud ran… As he emerged in a large room, as unkempt and void of furniture as the rest of the building, he was just on time to see four large creatures land behind Zack and the plump man he recognized as Professor Hollander while Angeal just stood there, impassive. His first instinct was to help his friend, but Rain stopped him.

‘ _Cloud, your voice! Quick, repeat what I say!’_

Hollander jumped on Angeal, shouting something desperate about a sample. The ex-SOLDIER easily pushed him back, but in the split second it gave him before the beasts pounced ( _and if that happened all was lost, lost_ , he kept hearing from Rain), Cloud found his breath.

“Angeal Hewley, you coward!”

All froze. Cloud felt himself blush under their combined stares. The monsters had stopped mid-pounce, looking confused as the order they were waiting for didn’t come. Because they were here to obey, he realized as some of Rain’s mysterious knowledge finally trickled through. To obey Angeal, but not to harm Zack…

“Cloud?” Zack shouted, as his eyes fleeted nervously between the infantryman and the beasts.

Angeal gratified him with an unimpressed look.

“I thought I had made it clear this was private business.”

Cloud alone would have blushed all the more and stammered, but Rain’s anger was beginning to seep through too, and his words came out loud and clear.

“Private? And what about all the people you’re trying to leave behind?”

Hollander had made it back to his feet and was trying to sneak behind the winged SOLDIER. Angeal seized him by the throat and sent him flying back against a wall, hard enough that he lost consciousness and crumpled to the ground.

“What do you pretend to know, that you’d dare to interfere?” he growled, calm façade beginning to crack. “You know nothing.”

“I know you intend to fuse with these copies—”

The strange word slipped easily through his lips, like he knew what he was talking about. Copies? He thought only Genesis had those.

“—to force Zack to fight and kill you. Am I wrong?”

“What?” Zack yelled, startled. “Angeal, what?”

The man didn’t answer, gaze set on Cloud.

“I won’t repeat myself. Whatever you think you know, this is none of your business. Get out.”

Cloud stubbornly held his place, glaring right back. He was beginning to understand what was going on, especially since Zack seemed more worried than angry. This Angeal guy was trying to get a friend to kill him, and that made him just as furious as Rain. What sort of friend did that?

His only warning came from Rain; he ducked and rolled to the ground. Above him came the sound of clashing blades. He looked up to see Zack and Angeal locked in a silent stand-still where his head had been a second before. He blanched.

“I merely intended to knock him down,” Angeal said.

“I know,” Zack answered, and that simple statement did a lot to prove to Cloud that Angeal was a really good friend of Zack. “But so far he’s the only one who has said anything that makes sense in this madness. Angeal, what about the people you’d leave behind? What about _me_? How could you try to get me to do that?”

Angeal scoffed and disengaged his blade.

“You’re strong, Zack. You don’t need me. And like I said, there is someone waiting for you, isn’t there?”

The beasts were creeping closer. Cloud latched back on the angry words bubbling from Rain’s mind.

“And what about Sephiroth?”

Angeal looked at him like he was crazy.

“Sephiroth is the last person who’d need me.”

“You can’t…!”

He jumped to his feet. He could feel that Rain was so angry he was nearly out of words.

_‘… because of him and the other… so much waste… you complete moron!’_

“You are blind!” he exploded. “So blind! Who else does Sephiroth has? You two were the only ones! And it didn’t occur to you that he might be like you, too? That he would suffer for it, too? Would you recommend he find someone to run a sword through him, then, just like you would?”

Angeal actually took a step back. Zack’s eyebrows had climbed to his hairline.

“Uh, Cloud… What are you even saying? ‘Cause Angeal and Genesis are, like, confidential stuff and there’s no way Sephiroth would be… I mean that’d be crazy… and… Angeal?”

Angeal was staring at Cloud, troubled.

“No. Hollander would have bragged about it.”

“Ha! Hollander!” Cloud, or rather Rain, laughed bitterly. (Because at this point, Cloud didn’t really understand anymore the words he was dutifully speaking in his brother’s behalf. Sephiroth was what?) “Hollander was never the one in charge of Sephiroth’s physicals, was he?”

Even through a growing headache, Cloud could sense it was a shot in the dark on Rain’s part, but it seemed to work. Angeal recoiled, looking grim.

“Hojo!” he muttered.

“Wait, wait!” Zack babbled. “That’s only speculation, right? There’s no way Cloud could know something like that, he’s only a trooper. Right, Cloud? It was just a guess, huh?”

Cloud barely heard him. His headache was growing exponentially worse, and he clutched his head in his hands. He felt himself stagger, and two hands caught his arms. Someone was talking to him. Through the blackness he could feel creeping on him, he managed to push a few more words.

“Sephiroth… needs you… don’t…”

And then there was nothing.

 

* * *

 

He woke up on the dirty floor of the same room. Zack was shaking him. Angeal and his copies were nowhere to be seen, but Hollander was still unconscious in a corner.

“Cloud!” Zack said, clearly relieved. “You’re finally awake. Are you wounded? Hurt somewhere?”

Not any more than the last time he had awaken to his friend’s face. But he let Zack fuss over him and tried to reach Rain. To his surprise, he found him awake, though exhausted. He had clearly stretched his strength trying to hold on until Cloud regained consciousness.

_‘What happened?’_

_‘Not sure,’_ Rain answered shortly. _‘Think I may have exhausted us both, bleeding my emotions over like that. Sorry.’_

_‘Hey that’s alr_ — _’_

_‘No it’s not,’_ he interrupted, and that was highly unusual, testament to how little time he had before slipping under himself. _‘I said too much, they’re going to be curious.’_

Sure enough, as soon as he ascertained that Cloud wasn’t in any immediate danger, Zack’s expression turned grave.

“Alright then, Cloud, listen. We’ve got very little time before Tseng comes looking for us. Were you serious, about Sephiroth? Do you know something Angeal and I don’t?”

Cloud tried not to panic.

“No, I—I mean, it’s just like you said. A guess. I mean, since Genesis and Angeal both have… uh… _wings_ … and they and Sephiroth are the three greatest SOLDIERs in the company, right? So, it’d seem weird that the two second bests would be like that and not, you know, the first?”

That was not as convincing as he would’ve liked. Zack didn’t really seem to be buying it, either. There was a distance in his eyes that wasn’t there before and it wrenched Cloud’s heart.

“Right,” he drawled. “And how come you knew who was in charge of Sephiroth’s physicals? And what about that attitude? How come you were all fiery-like, suddenly? Especially about… Oh.”

He seemed to have an epiphany.

“Oh! You’re a fan of Sephiroth, is that it? Is that why you were nearly spitting fire at Angeal?”

Well, considering he was already blushing, because he _was_ technically sort of a fan of the man, maybe that excuse would work better.

“Huh…”

He didn’t even have to say anything, his face was enough to convince Zack. The SOLDIER dissolved back into an easy grin.

“Oh man, lucky him! With that sort of fans, who needs bodyguards?”

Scowling but still blushing, Cloud gave him a good shove.

“Shut up,” he muttered. “I just really look up to him, okay?”

Zack kept smiling, but Cloud knew better than to think himself off the hook. Despite seeming so laid-back, Zack was a SOLDIER; surely he was no fool. He had to know something was strange. Well, he at least looked willing to let it go for now.

As they were getting up, Cloud finally remembered to ask.

“And Angeal? Is he… will he…?”

In answer to his worried gaze, Zack gave a tired smile, and this one was completely genuine.

“He’ll be fine, I think. For now, at least.”

It was the only answer they were going to get, but it seemed enough. Rain finally allowed himself the stiffening oblivion of sleep.

 

* * *

 

SOLDIER exam day.

Cloud was so full of nervous energy he could suddenly understand why Zack was always doing his infamous squats while waiting for something. Standing still seemed so hard!

Zack had already come by to cheer him up and punch his shoulder a few times. He was so enthusiastic about it it actually hurt, but if Zack was right and there really was no way he could fail, then in a few days, it wouldn’t matter. Zack would be able to playfully punch him as much as he wanted, Cloud would be done with the stupid bruises!

And he would not fail. No way. Rain had been helping with his training every time he was awake, and ever since they met some two months ago, Zack too had been giving him tons of pointers. He was also always trying to drag him off to eat a bite or chill out together, which was really flattering, given that the man had loads of friends, in and outside of SOLDIER. Cloud guessed Zack felt he somehow owed him for stopping Angeal from doing something stupid; it was a bit embarrassing, since that had been all Rain, but he would have had trouble explaining _that_. The other, grimmer option was that he was keeping an eye on him, but he didn’t want to think of it.

The waiting area was full of hopeful teenagers and young men, most of which Cloud had already met during the mandatory six months training in the Shinra regular army. The candidates eyed each other warily and mostly kept to themselves. Cloud was practically vibrating in his chair.

His anticipation was so high that he managed to wake Rain, which was quite a feat. When his brother slept, he was dead to the world.

_‘Oh Rain!’_ he said before he was even fully awake. _‘No pointers today, okay? I want to do this totally on my own.’_

_‘What? Oh… That’s right. The SOLDIER exam.’_

He didn’t sound very eager, but that was alright. Cloud was pumped up enough for two.

_‘Yeah. I told you it was today, remember?’_

_‘I would have had to know today was July 10th to realize that,’_ Rain replied with his usual brand of dry humour. _‘How is your leg?’_

He had been wounded in a mission two weeks ago. He would have liked to pretend that one had never happened. He had finally been allowed to carry a real sword, not that stupid club rookies were armed with, and the mission had been a total failure.

_‘Not total,’_ Rain assured him. _‘Professor Rayleigh is alright, thanks to you. You did your best. Leg?’_

_‘It’s fine, no worry. I don’t think it’ll give me trouble.’_

Rain kept silent a few seconds. When he spoke again, he sounded uncertain.

_‘Cloud, don’t be too disappointed if you don’t make it, okay?’_

_‘Come on! I told you I don’t want to be thinking like that. I know you don’t like that I want to be a SOLDIER, but it’s like Zack said; I’ve got to give it my all and pray for the best!’_

_‘I’m beginning to think spending so much time with Zack may not be that good for you,’_ Rain grumbled, which was an odd remark since he had always seemed very happy that Cloud and Zack were getting so close. _‘I’m just saying…’_

Just then, Cloud’s name was called. He jumped to his feet and tried not to trip in his eagerness. Zack had promised he’d be watching what he could of the exam, and there’d probably be other, bored, SOLDIERs looking on. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself. He took a deep breath as he approached the door.

_‘Later, okay? Here I go.’_

Rain settled in an uneasy silence at the back of his mind.

 

* * *

 

_‘I was good, right? Right? Rain? I think I was good but that monster still grazed me while I was protecting the crate that was the mission objective, so maybe…’_

_‘Cloud. Relax. You did fine. More than fine.’_

Rain’s clipped tone and the hint of pride in his voice did a lot to calm his frazzled nerves.

_‘Besides, you are still there, aren’t you? Look around. There aren’t that many candidates left.’_

It was true. One or two guys were still coming from the simulation rooms where the last exam was taking place, but they had been called by alphabetical order, so there weren’t many people behind Cloud on the list. And right now, they couldn’t be more than ten in the room. That meant… that meant that there were only the physicals left to go, right? It was the last step, right?

Finally, a door in an adjacent corridor opened. Curious, Cloud leaned forward and saw a small crowd exiting a nearby room. He recognized Zack’s broadsword and strong shoulders and smiled, excited. He had really been here! Right now, though, he had his back turned to Cloud as he was talking to someone behind him… and that someone…

Cloud gasped, as did a lot of the candidates around him. Sephiroth!

He was in full battle garb, the only thing missing his legendary blade, the Masamune. As the troopers looked on, awestruck, he turned his head to regard them with a piercing green gaze. Then, with a parting nod to Zack, he turned and left. Zack caught Cloud’s eyes and gifted him with a knowing smile. With a wave, he too followed the parting crowd.

Cloud didn’t really mind his friend’s teasing, he was too busy realizing that _Sephiroth_ , out of all people, had been watching the exam… He had always thought it would be much too boring, or even downright painful, for a SOLDIER of his standard. He had to be really dedicated!

As he was lost in his renewed admiration for the man, it took him a minute to realize that Rain had gone very, very quiet. It was not the usual sleeping quiet, though, more like he had shuttered himself so hard nothing was filtering anymore.

_‘Rain?...’_

He came back then, though he didn’t say anything, just raised his usual attentive silence. Funny how Cloud could catch the nuances so well after all these years.

_‘You okay?’_

_‘Yes. Cloud, listen, about what I wanted to tell you earlier. Did you know there is a physical requirement for becoming a SOLDIER? I’m not talking about your physical condition. It’s something you have never been tested for, something they are going to check right now.’_

Cloud felt something heavy drop to the bottom of his stomach. A man had appeared in the room, clipboard in hand, to lead them to the end of the exam. Cloud rose and followed, all excitement gone.

_‘What are you saying?...’_

_‘Just… don’t be too disappointed if something goes wrong, alright? You were very good today.’_

It was not so often that Rain’s compliments were that straightforward. It only made him more uneasy.

 

* * *

 

_‘You knew!’_

_‘Cloud…’_

_‘You knew this was going to happen!’_

_‘I couldn’t possibly…’_

_‘Don’t lie to me. You knew! Why did you let me do this if you knew I’d fail?’_

Cloud concentrated on not tearing up, despite his strong desire to bawl like a baby. Already the white walls of the infirmary were a bit blurry. Not that it couldn’t have been a side-effect of whatever they injected him with that messed up his body and _made him fail the SOLDIER exam_. He was desperately shivering despite the blankets, he hurt everywhere, even in his bones, and his thoughts were muddled, like he was trying to walk through molasses. It was still not enough to let him forget.

_‘It was your right to try. I couldn’t take that from you. Besides, why would you have believed me?’_

_‘Even Zack didn’t tell me you could fail at the physical. I’m the only one… The only one! Everyone else was fine! What even happened to me?’_

_‘The J cells.’_

_‘Huh?’_

_‘What they injected you with. What they inject every SOLDIER with, though in bigger quantities. Most people are somewhat fine with it, when it’s dosed correctly.’_

_‘I’m not.’_

_‘No. Your body has next to no defences against it. You couldn’t possibly stand the SOLDIER injections. I’m sorry, Cloud.’_

Cloud covered his eyes with his forearms to hide from the bustling nurses. He wanted to be alone, just now. Why couldn’t he just be alone? He felt Rain retreat at that.

_‘Not you,’_ he said. _‘Never you, Rain. But how could you even know all that? J cells? I thought the only thing they injected SOLDIERs with was diluted Mako or something.’_

_‘That too. But you would have been fine with it. And you’re right, not a lot of people outside of Shinra’s elite would know about the J cells. So don’t speak about it, okay?’_

_‘But… Does that mean… you’re Shinra, too?’_

That was the strangest thing he had ever thought. Just thinking of Rain as a separate entity, someone who actually might have a history outside of Cloud, made next to no sense to him. Rain had always been there, as far as he could remember. Cloud would soon be fifteen, and it was only very recently that he had begun to wonder about his brother’s nature. Rain’s existence was unusual, that he knew, and that’s why he had always hidden that there was someone invisible talking to him. But what was he, really? He had been discreet about the questions popping in his mind, worried that Rain would feel insulted or self-conscious about it…

But judging from the amusement filtering from his brother, those pesky cells were messing with his mental shields, and Rain wasn’t upset with it at all.

_‘You could say… You could say I’ve been Shinra.’_

That… sent his mind reeling.

Raised voices at the door prevented him from meditating on this life-changing admission. A nurse poked his head through and called to one of his colleagues:

“Visitor for Strife. He clear?”

The woman nodded without seeming to care overmuch.

_‘Huh? What?’_ Cloud thought, flummoxed.

_‘Probably Zack.’_

Oh Gaia, Zack. He was going to be so disappointed in him! He felt himself pale and was overtaken with the desire to be somewhere else, anywhere but here.

_‘Stay in this bed,’_ Rain said firmly when he actually considered getting up. _‘If I can’t get it through your thick head that none of this was your fault, he will.’_

Before he could take offense to that, Zack appeared, noticed him, and nearly steamrolled a nurse to get to his side. His eyes were wider than usual and he looked alarmed.

“Cloud! Oh Gaia, you alright? I didn’t even know you could be allergic to that shit they give us, I swear! You feeling alright? Well, not too badly I mean?”

“I don’t really think it’s an allergy,” he croaked, mainly because he didn’t know what else to say.

He had trouble looking Zack in the eye. The SOLDIER didn’t seem to notice. He commandeered a chair and sat, knee bouncing nervously.

“I’m so, so, _so_ sorry, Spike. I swear I had no idea this sort of thing could happen. You did so well in the exam, too! Everyone in the room thought you’d be a fine SOLDIER!”

Everyone in the room… Sephiroth, too? He knew Zack was trying to cheer him up, but really, it only made him bitter. Zack quickly noticed, though.

“Oh man, sorry,” he moaned. “I’m an idiot, right? It’s okay, you can tell me, I know I am. Look, tell you what? As soon as you feel better, we’re going to go out together, you and me. Right? You can chill and shake this nasty thing off, take a breather, before you think about what you want to do next. ‘kay?”

What he wanted to do next. Of course. He had only signed for the six months probation, and now, it was all for nothing. It’s not like he could go back to Nibelheim. He’d never be able to face his mother, let alone Tifa or the rest of the villagers. Maybe one day, he would… but no, not today, not so soon. He needed time, to come to terms with it. He could maybe find a job in Midgar… but he knew he’d get bored. Shinra was not perfect, far from it, but he actually felt alive, here.

So, he guessed he’d stay… right? For now, at least.

He smiled a pale smile for Zack, made an effort to look him in the face, and nodded.

“Yeah, sure. I’d like that.”

 

* * *

 

Home, sweet home.

Cloud tried not to breathe too much in the corridor, where smells of sweat and puke permanently lingered. He swiped his card and the door disappeared in the wall with a tired hiss. At least, the tiny one-room apartment he called home was cleaner.

The regular army’s barracks were not the most comfortable living space he had ever known, and unlike SOLDIERs’ rooms they were outside of Shinra Headquarters. Still, it was free housing, he had his own apartment now that he was no longer a trainee, and it was barely a five minutes walk to work. Not too bad.

With a sigh, he carefully propped his Shinra-issued sword at its place against a wall. Just as he was removing his helmet—he hated this thing, it got way too hot when there was some action, not to mention it messed up his hair—his PHS rang. He dropped the damned helmet on his tiny bed and fished around in his pocket. He smiled at seeing the caller ID.

“Hiya, Zack.”

“Hey Spike. How’s it going?”

“Huh, good,” he answered, a bit confused. Zack sounded nervous. “You?”

“Eeeh,” the SOLDIER sighed. “Well, huh, I need a favour, Cloud. You busy?”

“I just finished at HQ. Want me to drop at yours?”

“No, I’m not there. Think you could come below Plate?”

“Below…?”

Well, that was unusual. Cloud knew Zack often went down there to see his girlfriend, whom Cloud had yet to meet, but he himself only went there on patrols. It was not a part of Midgar he was eager to visit, but if Zack needed him…

“Something wrong with your flower girl?”

“Huh? Oh, no no,” Zack laughed. “It’s not about Aerith. Still, you coming?”

“Yeah, of course I am. Let me just change and head to the station.”

“Awesome! Thanks Spike. I’m sending you the train details by email.”

“Okay, see you there.”

He stripped off his uniform and put on a clean shirt and some loose pants, then strapped his sword back on. No way was he going down there without a weapon. His pocket chimed; Zack’s email.

Taking the train to the under Plate Sector 5 was uneventful. Cloud climbed out and warily made his way to the platform exit, looking for Zack. He was barely out when a hand clapped on his shoulder, making him jump and nearly reach for his weapon.

“Hey,” Zack said, smiling brightly. “Thanks for coming. This way!”

He let himself be dragged away, sighing in relief.

“You scared me, you idiot.”

“What, thought I was a rapist or something? Don’t worry, the slums aren’t that bad,” he laughed.

“For a SOLDIER, I’m sure they aren’t.”

But though Zack was happily bantering as per usual, there was something off with him.

“So, what’s up?”

“In a minute Cloud, we’re nearly there.”

Cloud examined his surroundings with a disbelieving stare. They were in a pretty deserted area not far from the train tracks, empty streets badly lit and littered with scraps of cardboard and the odd trashcan.

“In this place?”

Zack gently pushed him in a narrow alley between two windowless walls.

“Sorry, Spike.”

Cloud twisted to look at him over his shoulder, surprised. Zack’s eyes had gone guilty and a bit sad.

“I wouldn’t have dragged you in this mess, but I’m out of my depth here.”

Before he could open his mouth to ask what was happening, he heard something land softly in the alley and twisted to look while simultaneously stepping back. Zack pressed a gentle but firm hand on his back, preventing him from backing up further.

A huge broadsword appeared under his chin and Cloud was left gulping, staring in the angry eyes of traitor Angeal Hewley.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter corrected on 11/14/15.

The ex-SOLDIER’s white wings were spread, the biggest one brushing against one of the alley walls. It made him seem even more imposing and menacing than he already was, and since Cloud very much liked his neck, he didn’t dare move so much as a muscle.

“Angeal,” Zack said, a warning in his voice.

The man grunted, not taking his gaze from Cloud. Still, he lowered his sword. Cloud breathed more easily.

“You know I don’t trust him,” Angeal said.

“Cloud is a good guy. Have faith, man! If he can help, I’m sure he will.”

Nervous, Cloud backed up against a wall to try and keep the two of them in sight.

“What’s going on, Zack?”

Wasn’t Angeal a deserter? What was he doing here, in Midgar of all places? Zack reached a hand and squeezed his shoulder, trying to reassure him.

“It’s all right, Cloud, Angeal won’t hurt you. You can’t tell anyone you saw him here, though. You get it, right? Angeal isn’t working against Shinra or anything, and it would be bad for him if they tried to chase him now.”

And for Zack too, if it got out that he was still in contact with his old mentor. Since Modeoheim, Cloud had learned a bit more about Angeal and Zack’s past. About that Genesis guy, too, since Zack had told him as much as he was allowed to. It was bordering on treason, what Zack was doing right now.

“Okay,” Cloud said slowly, though in a worried voice. “If you say so, Zack. I trust you.”

Zack grinned at him.

“Thanks, Spike, you’re the best.”

A ruffle of feathers caught Cloud’s attention. Angeal had backed a few steps and was rubbing a tired hand against his brow. He stopped when he noticed him looking, but Cloud was now becoming aware of the ex-SOLDIER’s pinched face. It was difficult to see in the poor lighting, but he seemed paler than in Modeoheim, too.

“I was trying to prevent this,” Angeal grunted in answer to his scrutiny.

“What?” Cloud said, baffled.

Angeal shook his head and strode a little further away in the alley.

“Cloud,” Zack said. “Angeal is having problems… keeping his head clear. Uh… I don’t understand everything myself but it’s probably related to the… y’know… wings and all. So, I know you said you only used logic in Modeoheim but… you sure you don’t know anything about this?”

Cloud stared. Zack lost a little of his assurance.

“Because if you know anything, anything at all… I mean, it’d be okay. If you have more info than us, anything that could help—”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t barged in,” Angeal interrupted.

“Angeal!”

He turned back to them, glowering at Cloud.

“You said Sephiroth needed me. But what use can I be to _anyone_ when I’m like _this_?”

His voice rose at the end and Cloud flinched, having gotten the impression that the man was usually the picture of calm. Angeal grimaced and cradled his head, shaking it. His other hand was clutching the hilt of his sword like a lifeline. Cloud could see its tremors from fifteen feet away. He sneaked an alarmed glance to Zack, who was looking more worried by the second.

“Please, Cloud. If you know anything…”

Oh damn, no. Cloud reached frantically to the back of his mind, but nothing to it; Rain was dead asleep.

Rain could have known something about this. He had seemed to know so many things about Angeal and Genesis already, maybe he could have helped. Maybe he would still be able to, when he awoke. He couldn’t just tell them that no, he didn’t know anything! Zack’s friend needed help, and if they had come to an anonymous trooper for advice, obviously there was no one else to provide it.

“I—I’m sorry,” he said, and already he could see the hope die in Zack’s eyes and a rigidity in Angeal’s shoulders. “No, wait! Maybe I can help but not… not today. I mean… Planet, I’m sorry,” he breathed, feeling guilty for not offering more.

Zack looked confused, now.

“What are you saying, Cloud?”

“I may… okay, I admit I maybe know more than I should. But it’s not from me, that knowledge! It’s just really bad timing, but I can’t contact him now. Maybe if you leave me a few days, I can see if he knows anything about this…”

Talking about Rain, even in such ambiguous terms, made him nervous, and Angeal’s accusing stare wasn’t helping.

“So that Shinra can be warned about my presence here?” he growled. “No, thank you.”

“Angeal, come on, man!” Zack pleaded. “Cloud already gave his word.”

“I heard nothing like that. You are too naïve, Zack.”

Judging by his gritted teeth, the swordsman was having difficulty controlling his temper, but Cloud didn’t really understand what he wanted. Zack squeezed his shoulder.

“Cloud, can you swear you won’t tell anyone about Angeal? It’s alright if he does, right, Angeal?”

Angeal hardly looked convinced, but remembering what Zack had told him about the man, Cloud drew his sword all the same and held it before him. Angeal didn’t even bother tensing, a somewhat painful reminder that he had nothing to fear from a non-enhanced soldier like Cloud.

“I swear on my honour as a swordsman that I will not tell anyone about your presence in Midgar, except for the person I told you about. And I swear on his behalf that he will not tell a single soul.”

Angeal looked slightly mollified by his unwavering gaze. Zack jumped on it.

“And Cloud is damned good with a sword, too! He nearly got in SOLDIER, would have if it hadn’t been for an allergy or something to the injections. What a waste!”

Cloud sheathed his weapon and tried his best not to scowl. He knew Zack was trying to help, but he didn’t need his failure to be broadcast. Angeal had gone pensive.

“No, that’s probably for the best, in the end. SOLDIER is not always… a good place to be.”

Cloud blinked, surprised.

“That’s what he said, too.”

“Your mysterious ‘friend’?”

When Cloud nodded, he let out an amused grunt and smiled, the first time Cloud had seen him do so.

“Then I’m ready to believe that he does knows more about Shinra than he should. Very well. Wait for me here in three days, same time. If you two don’t come alone or if I have reason to believe you were followed, I will leave Midgar for good.”

He took to the air before Cloud could even say that three days might be too short. Rain had been known to sleep for two weeks straight. Better hope it would not come to that. He looked on until Angeal reached the top of the buildings, his white wings contrasting starkly with the dark plate above before disappearing.

Cloud lowered his eyes in time to notice the wounded expression on Zack’s face before his friend managed to wipe it out. Well, no wonder, he realized. His mentor had just warned him against betraying him. Hadn’t Zack already proved his loyalty? His opinion of the ex-SOLDIER lowered again. Despite a bad first impression, he had tried to stay neutral to respect Zack’s obvious affection for the man, but he was making a bad case for himself.

Zack probably noticed something on his face, because he smiled sadly.

“Hey, don’t think too badly of him, okay? He is not like that, usually. Not so short-tempered, and not so paranoid either. Not that he doesn’t have reasons to be, but…”

He sighed and his shoulders sagged.

“Yeah, I think something is really wrong with him. I hope you can help, Cloud. But all the same, thanks for trying. It means a lot to me.”

He smiled and Cloud did his best to answer in kind.

“If it’s for you, it’s no problem, Zack. Just don’t ditch me in three days, okay?”

Zack laughed. Looping an arm around his shoulders, he stirred him in the direction of the train station.

“Come on, let’s go back. Want to grab something to eat?”

“Sure, I’m famished.”

 

* * *

 

Three days later, an anxious Cloud was waiting in the HQ lobby.

His eyes nervously roamed around the huge room. Sometimes it made him uneasy to notice that there were virtually no traces left of that attack back in April, when the building’s security robots had gone crazy and started firing left and right and Genesis copies had swooped in to add to the confusion. It had been a huge fight, but barely a week after, it had seemed like nothing had happened. Shinra was really good at covering shit. And _that_ sounded a lot like something Rain would say. Cloud smiled, secretly pleased that his brother was rubbing off on him.

He stretched inward and found Rain just in his reach. He had woken the day before and Cloud had told him all about Angeal’s problem, but his waking time had been an issue. Rain had no clear-cut solution to Angeal’s difficulties and he wanted more details. To do that, he had to be awake during Cloud’s next encounter with the ex-SOLDIER, but it was nearly impossible to achieve.

He usually was awake for a maximum of ten hours before snoring away for a few days straight. He could not stay awake until the time of the meeting, but if he slept, he would miss it. Rain had then decided to try something and see if he couldn’t sleep more lightly. He had alluded that he had once been a very light sleeper, which meant that he was talking about The Mysterious Time When He Was Not Yet With Cloud, and Cloud had tried his best to not break his brain thinking too hard about it. Anyway, it had made Rain laugh and he had promised to tell him more soon, so it would have to be fine.

Still, just because Rain seemed closer to consciousness than usual didn’t mean that it was going to work. Cloud had postponed trying to wake him up as much as possible, worried that it had all been in vain… but Zack would be here any minute, now, so it had to be done.

He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and gave a good mental poke. He felt Rain stir faintly. Encouraged, he kept poking until Rain’s presence began to unravel. Like a sleeping hedgehog, he thought.

 _‘Good day to you, too,’_ Rain grumbled sleepily, apparently not appreciating the comparison.

 _‘Hi!’_ Cloud answered, excited. _‘It worked!’_

_‘So it did.’_

Rain sounded serene, but satisfied.

_‘This should make things easier in the future. I am still sleepy, though.’_

_‘Yeah, I can feel that. Sleepyhead.’_

All joking aside, it probably meant he wouldn’t stay awake more than a couple of hours. Oh, well.

They didn’t have to wait long before Zack emerged from one of the elevators. Cloud jumped to his feet, but stopped when he noticed that his friend was not alone. A SOLDIER Second was walking by his side. Zack spotted Cloud and, to the trooper’s surprise, signalled the SOLDIER to follow him as he approached.

“Hey, Cloud,” he said. “My friend here will be coming with us tonight, alright?”

What? But… hadn’t Angeal said he didn’t want to see anyone other than Zack and him? He did a double take.

The unknown SOLDIER hadn’t even bothered to take his helmet off, nor did he say a word. He just stood there. It wasn’t Kunsel, either. Cloud had already met Kunsel, since he was a good friend of Zack, and the guy wasn’t that tall.

As for Zack, to anyone else in the lobby, he would have looked nothing more than a little sheepish, like someone bringing without warning a stranger to an evening with a friend. But Cloud could see the well-hidden warning in his eyes. Right. Not saying anything suspicious in Shinra territory. Anyway, he guessed Zack knew what he was doing.

“Okay,” he said, shrugging.

“Alright!”

Zack clapped his arm, grinning.

“Gaia knows the guy needs to unwind. Let’s go!”

Zack led the way down the lobby stairs and to the exit with his usual energy. Cloud followed next to the Second and sneaked curious glances at him. Being openly curious was fine, right? The guy was certainly mysterious. He didn’t even react to his scrutiny.

_‘What do you think, Rain?’_

_‘Hum…’_

Rain sure seemed pensive.

 _‘Let him go first,’_ he said when they came to the exit turnstile. _‘Observe him for me.’_

Cloud did as he was told, politely stepping aside and staring at the stranger as he waited for his turn.

 _‘Huh,’_ Rain said when they were outside.

He sounded disturbed.

_‘Well?’_

_‘I… may be wrong. It’s just a hunch.’_

No matter how much he badgered Rain after that, he just said they would see soon enough. As for Zack, when Cloud managed to sneak him an interrogating glance while they were boarding the train, he just winked. Cloud huffed, annoyed, and sat next to the stranger just for the hell of it. The man gave him an odd look and, for some reason, Rain was suddenly on edge. Well, he deserved that.

Zack breathed a laugh and mussed up his hair.

“Never change, Spike,” Zack said, content to sit on his other side and ignore the glare he was sending him on behalf of his poor hair.

They bantered a bit while the train led them under the Plate, though the Second never said a word. They weren’t talking about anything of importance anyway, since apparently things of importance were prohibited.

When they got out, Zack turned to Cloud to ask him:

“By the way, did you find anything?”

He was aiming for levity for appearance’s sake, but it didn’t fool Cloud.

“Nothing definite yet. I have a few questions for him.”

He would have liked to provide more, but Zack nodded and gave him a grateful smile. He turned to their companion.

“We’re nearly there.”

The guy nodded without a word. So he _was_ coming with them to see Angeal. Cloud hoped the ex-SOLDIER wouldn’t flip his lid and leave without talking to them. That would kind of defeat the purpose.

Zack led them through a completely different road than the previous time and Cloud nearly corrected him, before he realized he was trying to set off potential spies.

 _‘Good call,’_ Rain said, and Cloud may have blushed a little under the praise.

If the Second walking next to him noticed, though, he didn’t seem to care.

They reached the alley. Cloud slipped in first while Zack talked to his other friend to cover the fact that they were making a last check on their rear. Angeal wasn’t here yet so Cloud waited near the wall, bouncing nervously on his feet. He really hoped Angeal wouldn’t flee.

The two SOLDIERs came in. The Second abruptly raised his hands to his helmet. He began taking it off, and Cloud couldn’t restrain a gasp when a river of silver hair cascaded down his back.

He heard Rain groan, and remembered to close his mouth just before Sephiroth, of all people, glanced at him. He snapped to attention as if struck by lightning.

“At ease.”

Cloud slowly relaxed. Zack gave a small punch to his shoulder, sheepish.

“Sorry I couldn’t warn you, Cloud. We were trying to keep it under wrap. It’s really not easy for Sephiroth to get out of HQ without anyone noticing.”

Sephiroth nodded.

“I apologize for the deception, Strife.”

Okay, it was definitely one of these moments where he was not supposed to squeal in surprise that his hero actually _knew his name_.

“Of course, sir,” he managed to choke.

He didn’t have as much success getting rid of the deer in the headlights look. Thankfully, Angeal took that moment to make his descent from the sky.

“Sephiroth. I am surprised to see you here,” were his first words.

Cloud breathed more easily. Angeal had come despite Sephiroth’s presence _and_ the attention had switched from him. Bonus!

“You take a lot of risks coming to Midgar,” Sephiroth answered, slit green eyes impassive. “I wanted to know what could be so important, that you would do it now that Genesis is no longer a threat.”

Cloud remembered Zack and Rain saying Sephiroth had been friend with Angeal and Genesis before their desertion. Although it explained his presence, it didn’t show much.

Angeal sent a curious glance to Zack, who lifted his hands.

“I didn’t tell him anything! Don’t ask me how he guessed.”

“There is a white feather stuck under your shoe.”

Zack’s hand shot out to brace against Cloud’s shoulder and he lifted his foot. Sure enough, a small feather had inserted itself in one of the grooves of the sole. It was splattered with dry mud and few people would have assumed it was originally white. Especially since there were no white birds in Midgar’s grey skies.

Angeal grunted, amused.

“I didn’t know you cared, Sephiroth.”

Cloud tuned out the banter between the two men.

_‘Rain, you could have warned me! You knew, didn’t you?’_

Now that he noticed, Rain only ever became this tense when Sephiroth was nearby. So he had to have known! And, oh Gaia, he had sat next to _Sephiroth_ in the train…

_‘I would really rather have been wrong.’_

Yeah, Rain didn’t like Sephiroth alright. Why hadn’t he said anything sooner, then? He knew Cloud idolized the man. Now it kind of made him feel guilty, like he had to somehow choose between the two people he respected the most.

Meanwhile, Zack and Angeal had seemingly decided that telling Sephiroth about Angeal’s “health troubles” was acceptable. Sephiroth looked pensive.

“Have you tried looking into the research data Hollander stole from Shinra in April?”

“I didn’t find it in Modeoheim. I wouldn’t be surprised if Turks were sent to retrieve it.”

Sephiroth frowned.

“If that is the case, why didn’t it reappear in Shinra’s data room?”

“That’s right,” Zack said. “You spent a lot of time in there lately.”

Angeal sighed, looking more tired than ever.

“We could spend a lot of time speculating, but I’d really rather begin by asking Zack’s friend if he has anything to say on the matter.”

They turned to him. Unfortunately, Cloud had discovered an unexpected problem: Rain was clamming up. He started under their sudden attention.

“Yeah, uh… just give me a minute,” he stammered, blushing.

He turned his back to them and took a few steps away. There was really no subtle way to hide that he was having a heated argument with the voice in his head, but he still cringed under their dumbfounded gazes.

“I still don’t understand what made you think an infantryman would be privy to this kind of information,” came Sephiroth’s deep voice, _sotto voce_.

“I told you, Sephiroth,” Zack answered. “It was just some things he said…”

“And he outright admitted to it three days ago,” Angeal added.

“That, too.”

Unfortunately, what Cloud could hear, Rain could too.

_‘This is getting worse and worse. I had figured Zack would call Sephiroth’s attention on you after what happened in Modeoheim, but this is just peachy!’_

Cloud had never known Rain to be so agitated. It would have scared him, if he hadn’t sensed somehow that Rain’s anger was entirely directed at himself.

_‘Come on, Rain, I’m sorry I said I had a way to get this information, but since they know now…’_

_‘No,’_ he flat out refused. _‘This is putting you in danger, Cloud. I should have known better than to get you involved in this mess.’_

_‘Now, wait a minute! You can’t coddle me, Rain. I am the one who made the choice to help Angeal!’_

_‘This is much too big for you. The attention you’re attracting because of me…’_

_‘It’s already done anyway! You think they are going to leave me alone if I just tell them my informant dropped the line? And we can’t leave Angeal like that! You didn’t see him last time, he was downright scary. He nearly said this thing was why he wanted Zack to kill him in Modeoheim!’_

Rain went quiet at that.

_‘That… I guess I can… see why.’_

Cloud could feel something shift in the way his brother viewed the ex-SOLDIER. Maybe Rain had decided he wasn’t a coward?

_‘We made him change his mind. Shouldn’t we assume the consequences?’_

He could feel Rain hesitate for a moment. Rain wanted to help, he was sure of it.

 _‘No,’_ Rain said. _‘Not us. Me. I am the one who asked you to interfere.’_

_‘And I made the choice to do it. Not just for you, but for Zack as well. If I can help, I want to, so don’t go telling me I can’t because it’s dangerous! You know why I wanted to be in SOLDIER, why I’m still in the army, you know it! You are the same, too. You’ll help even if it’s dangerous, because someone has to!’_

A hand on his arm distracted him from his internal dilemma. He looked up at Zack’s worried face.

“Cloud, we can’t stay here too long. Sephiroth’s absence could be noticed.”

Cloud glanced past him. He tried not to look at Sephiroth’s impatient frown, focusing instead on the lines on Angeal’s tired face. Rain sighed.

 _‘Fine,’_ he yielded. _‘Fine. You win. But be careful, Cloud. You are stepping in something big.’_

He’d be careful, he would. For his sake, and Rain’s.

“Yeah,” he said aloud, blinking to get his mind back on track. “Alright, I’m done.”

“Okay,” Zack said slowly, baffled.

They joined Sephiroth and Angeal. The ex-SOLDIER fixed an irritated gaze on him.

“Were you able to talk to your contact or not?”

“Yes. Yes I was. Hum… Could you give a better description of the, uh, symptoms? Anything you can tell.”

Angeal heaved an impatient sigh, but complied.

“My thoughts are… muddled. Slowed, and sometimes some of my decisions and acts retrospectively make little sense to me. I haven’t been able to sleep well in months. On occasions I get flashes of images, impressions, that I forget as soon as I wake up.”

“No voices?”

Angeal gave him a wary look.

“No, no voices. Are you implying I might be experiencing schizophrenia?”

His tone was getting dark, but Cloud just blinked, more focused on Rain.

“Huh? No, nothing like that.”

Angeal relaxed a little.

“Any idea, then?” Sephiroth asked.

Cloud tried not to stare at him, leaning against a wall in his strange Second Class uniform.

“Well, my contact is pretty sure of the cause,” he said slowly, “but he doesn’t have much on ways of stopping it.”

“What is it, then?” Angeal asked avidly.

“It’s the… J cells.”

Cloud had had to pause. The J cells? Like the stuff they injected every SOLDIER with? The thing was actually dangerous?

 _‘Only in very high doses,’_ Rain answered.

Fortunately, none of the enhanced men had noticed his lag as they were busy exchanging startled looks.

“The J cells are not known to have this kind of effect,” Sephiroth said.

“Really? Did you ask Genesis?” Cloud shot back, then realized Rain’s formulation was super impertinent. “Uh… sir,” he added, wide-eyed.

Sephiroth shot him a curious look.

“Well…” Zack hummed, uneasy. “There _is_ no proof that Genesis’ behaviour was only caused by his degradation…”

“It seems too convenient a timing,” Angeal rebuked, not convinced.

“Yes it does,” Rain actually agreed through Cloud’s voice. “Something in the degradation may have triggered a reaction in the J cells. Or not. There’s no way to know. But for you, do you remember when it started? Knowing if something triggered it might actually help.”

“It happened progressively,” Angeal said, shaking his head. “I can’t pinpoint a moment in time.”

“But you had no symptoms before Genesis came to you in Wutai?” Sephiroth asked.

“No, of that I’m sure.”

“You think Genesis, or more likely Hollander, did something to him?” Zack suggested.

“That would require Hollander being aware of this phenomenon, and I am still not convinced Shinra scientists ever recorded such an happening.”

The doubts were clear in Sephiroth’s voice. Meanwhile, Rain’s mind was whirring in the background of Cloud’s brain.

“If it really is the J cells, though,” Zack insisted, “what can we do? I mean, they’re a part of Angeal, right? How do we stop that? Cloud, any idea?”

Cloud was trying to keep his ears open to both the conversation around him and his brother, but Rain was thinking a bit loudly.

“Uh,” he said, startled. “I think… Hum…”

Thankfully, Rain came to his rescue.

“It might… Well, it’s really only an idea, but… do you use your wings a lot, Angeal?”

The man gave a mirthless grunt.

“I rarely get rid of them, nowadays. They’re kind of an useful tool for a fugitive. Why?”

“Well… they are… a manifestation of the J cells, so…”

A thunderous frown had appeared on Angeal’s brow.

“Are you saying this may be caused by the wings?”

“It may not be helping, at least. While you have them out, a lot of J cells are active…”

A big fist closed on his shirt. He nearly swallowed his tongue when Angeal dragged their faces closer. He looked furious and Rain had gone tense with worry at the back of his mind.

“Do you think I’m stupid, trooper? I’m not going to let you strand me in Midgar to be picked up by Shinra—”

A gloved hand wrapped around Angeal’s fist. Cloud rolled his eyes upwards to see Sephiroth give a deadly stare to his old friend.

“Drop him, Angeal.”

Angeal bared his teeth.

“So help me, Sephiroth, if you are in league with this…”

“Come on, Angeal,” Zack said.

From the corner of his eye, Cloud could see he had unsheathed his sword, but he looked unwilling to use it. If Cloud came to be in danger, though, he knew his friend wouldn’t hesitate. He relaxed a little.

“You’re being unreasonable, man. If we had wanted to turn on you, we could already be fighting you right now. With Sephiroth and me, we’d easily overpower you.”

Angeal gave a nasty snarl.

“Is that your backup plan, then?”

The man was obviously giving in to paranoia. Sephiroth’s hand disappeared. A fraction of second later a sword passed a hair’s breadth away from Cloud’s nose. He was snagged by the back of his shirt and flung away where he landed in Zack’s arms. Zack staggered, just as startled as him, then put him on his feet and pushed him behind his back. The clang of clashing blades was already filling the alley.

Cloud gaped at the collar of his shirt. A large bunch of tissue was missing where Sephiroth had cut to free him from Angeal’s fist. Then he gaped at the two SOLDIER Firsts duelling in the middle of the alley.

It was a thing of beauty, watching them fight. Angeal’s sluggish thoughts didn’t reflect on his fighting style, and even if Sephiroth was only wielding a standard Shinra sword instead of his Masamune, he didn’t seem diminished in any way.

 _‘The sword is going to give,’_ Rain said suddenly.

 _‘Huh?’_ Cloud stammered, still in awe.

_‘Sephiroth is favouring his sword. It’s too low-quality for this fight, it’ll break if he give it his all. Send him yours.’_

_‘It’s even worse quality!’_

_‘He’ll make do. Do it!’_

Well, if Rain said so… Kneeling, he drew his weapon and sent it spinning on the floor toward the fighters.

“Sephiroth!”

Sephiroth barely needed the warning. Just as the blade reached him, he hooked a feet under it and sent it flying to his right hand without missing a beat or even glancing at it. Cloud watched with glee as he proceeded to fight dual-handed, using the combination of both swords to take the edge out of Angeal’s blows.

Zack chanced an impressed look at Cloud. He had obviously been about to intervene.

“Good thinking, Spike!”

“Thanks…”

Cloud was beginning to feel overwhelmed. He was alone with no less than four master swordsmen, because yes, at this point it was obvious that Rain was one too, and it made him feel very small. Still…

 _‘Thanks for that. I know you don’t like Sephiroth very much,’_ he told Rain.

He grunted. _‘He did get you out of Angeal’s range… And he’s not the insane one right now.’_

With those mysterious words, he retreated to the back of his mind to watch the fight.

Despite the narrowness of the alley, Angeal had managed to take flight. It didn’t slow Sephiroth much, though, as he was expertly jumping from wall to wall, barely affected by gravity. And then suddenly, he reared back in free fall and shot a hand forward. A fireball flew from his equipped Materia. Angeal braced himself, but instead of heading to him, it struck right at his extended wings.

He screamed and collapsed to the ground, feathers aflame. Sephiroth landed gracefully, and an instant later he was behind his friend who was struggling to get to his feet. Zack took a step forward as if to stop it, but too late. One of Sephiroth’s blades swooped down and Angeal’s bloody and burnt wings fell to the ground, severed. Zack and Cloud both cringed.

Angeal crumpled back to his knees, swallowing back another scream that came out instead as a keening moan. His arms braced him on the floor, shaking. His sword lay forgotten in his hand.

“What… have you done…” he groaned.

“What you were evidently in no state to do yourself,” Sephiroth answered calmly, flicking the blood from his weapons.

Zack was at his mentor’s side in two strides.

“That may have been unnecessary,” he protested, kneeling next to the man and taking his shoulder.

“Maybe,” Sephiroth acknowledged. “Time will tell. You are not leaving Midgar, Angeal.”

Zack gave him a startled look in lieu of Angeal who kept his head bowed, defeated.

“I am not delivering you to Shinra, either. But I won’t let you leave the city until I can ascertain for myself that no more of these outbursts will occur. I won’t have a second Genesis running around.”

“And if this changes nothing…” Angeal gasped. “If it changes nothing… will you kill me?”

A brief silence resonated in the alley. Zack squeezed Angeal’s shoulder and his face crumpled, but he said nothing. Cloud felt like a stranger.

“If this is your wish,” Sephiroth answered, strangely expressionless.

Angeal nodded silently. After a beat, he let Zack help him to sit so he could treat his injury. Blood ran freely down the ex-SOLDIER’s back, but before long the gentle glow of a healing Materia illuminated their faces.

“I could bring him to…” Zack said, breaking the silence.

“No,” Sephiroth denied instantly. “She is under Turk surveillance.”

Zack granted him with a weird look.

“Right… I never did get the full story on that.”

Cloud had no idea what they were talking about.

“Both of our absences would be noticed,” Sephiroth said.

“And Cloud…” Zack began, glancing at him.

“… would not be able to resist Angeal in case something like this happened again. No offense, Strife.”

Cloud mutely shook his head. After the fight he had seen, no way was he offended! Sephiroth gave a last look at the blade in his right hand, then flipped it and held it out hilt first to him.

“Thank you, by the way.”

Cloud stepped forward to take it back.

“No problem, sir.”

Zack gave Cloud a pale smile, then turned back to Sephiroth.

“How about Kunsel, then? He is a Second. If he kept Angeal under status alterations, he could guard him during the day, and I could relieve him from time to time so he could sleep.”

“Hmm… Can you guarantee his loyalty?”

“Oh yeah, that I can. He knows Shinra isn’t all flowers and sunshine. And… that Angeal is important to me.”

“Then this seems like the best solution. We’ll find a hotel, one not too curious about their clientele.”

 _‘Should not be too difficult in the slums,’_ Rain interjected dryly.

“You will spend the night there with him while Strife and I go back to Shinra. I will talk myself to Kunsel and he will come relieve you tomorrow morning. Is that suitable?”

“Yeah, works for me.”

Zack sent a questioning glance to Angeal, but he just flopped a tired hand without answering.

“Guess it’s a plan, then.”

Zack slid under one of his friend’s arms to help him stand. Cloud hurried to take Angeal’s other side while Sephiroth retrieved his helmet. While Cloud stared, he twisted his impressively long hair around his head and slid the helmet in place.

What remained of the severed wings was still smoking on the ground. Cloud noticed Zack glance sadly at the white feathers scattered around. Sephiroth didn’t seem to have as many regrets, because he didn’t hesitate to use his fire Materia a second time before sheathing his sword. Well, Cloud thought, watching the fire consume the wings to ashes, it would probably have been suspicious to leave that kind of things lying around.

Still, like Zack he had to avert his eyes. It was difficult to think that something so beautiful could be responsible for so much pain.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI: I’m using information from the Final Fantasy Wiki to infer that Professor Gast was the one who secretly put Jenova in the Nibelheim reactor so that his esteemed colleague Hojo had no access to her. I’m fairly sure if Hojo had known where to find Jenova, he wouldn’t have wanted her anywhere away from his Science Department, that big creep.
> 
> Uncorrected chapter...

Cloud’s PHS buzzed. He raised his head with a snort, having nearly fallen asleep on his book. Damn, he had bought the thing because it was a recent bestseller and he wanted to learn a bit more about Genesis, but this compilation of his theories on LOVELESS, edited by the man’s fan club after his death, was a bit overwhelming. Who knew you could deduce so much from poetry?

He snatched his phone from the bedside table and accessed his new email, yawning.

> _“Hey Spike, our friend seems to be getting better. Want to come see him on Friday? Sourpuss will be there too! (that should convince you to come, right? (: )_
> 
> _Zack”_

Cloud snorted and tried not to laugh at Zack’s nickname for Sephiroth.

_‘What do you think, Rain? Want to be there, too?’_

Rain didn’t appear to be laughing, though.

_‘It might be best. If Sephiroth starts to get curious about you, it could get very ugly very fast.’_

_‘Oh, come on! What have you got against the man? He has never had a reputation for being anything other than scrupulously fair and just. He seemed interested in your info, too, so I hardly think he is going to harass me for leaking Shinra data.’_

Rain kept silent. Cloud put down both the PHS and the book.

_‘Come on, Rain,’_ he said, suddenly very serious. _‘You promised you’d explain things to me soon. How about we begin now? Why do you dislike Sephiroth?’_

Rain made a strangled sound, despite the fact that he was physically incapable of choking.

_‘Dislike!’_

There was such a mix of emotions in this word that Cloud started. Disbelief, bitterness, and above all an incredibly deep sorrow were bleeding from Rain’s mind. His brother made an obvious effort to control himself, probably not eager to repeat the Modeoheim incident. Cloud was left gaping from the near overwhelming grief he had only been allowed to glimpse.

_‘Rain…’_

_‘I don’t dislike him, Cloud. Dislike is no word for what I think of Sephiroth.’_

_‘Why?’_ he could only ask, helpless.

_‘Because of possibilities,’_ Rain answered bitterly. _‘Possibilities and potential and wasted lives. Because I’m afraid this is fate.’_

_‘I don’t understand.’_

_‘Cloud. I’m from the future.’_

It came from so far out of left field that for a few long moments, Cloud’s mind stayed blank. Rain could as well have been talking about the weather outside, for all the impact it had on him.

_‘Uh… sorry, what?’_

Rain sighed.

_‘I don’t know how else to say it. It’s not like there is any way to make it seem less crazy than it really is. I came from the future, Cloud.’_

_‘… No way.’_

_‘I am not joking. This is real.’_

_‘You can’t! You can’t be serious! That kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life!’_

_‘You met a man with wings. You live in a city where the sun refuses to shine. You have had someone talking in your head since you were six. What_ is _impossible, Cloud?’_

Cloud fell silent. He felt very dizzy, suddenly. But this was _Rain_. His brother may have had his own brand of humour, but he was sure he would never play such an elaborate joke. And he wouldn’t lie, not to Cloud. He couldn’t believe that.

But if he was neither joking, nor lying…

_‘You are actually from the future.’_

_‘Yes.’_

_‘… Oh, Planet.’_

He got up, unsteadily walked to the sink and concentrated on remedying his suddenly dry mouth.

_‘Okay. You are from the future. Right. Then what are you doing back here… or “now”, I guess? Were you a scientist or something? Did something go wrong in an experiment?’_

Classic movie scenario, right? Rain snorted.

_‘No, I am definitely not a scientist. It had more to do with the apocalypse.’_

_‘… The apocalypse.’_

_‘And the Planet wanting me to do something about it, if I had to guess.’_

_‘… Guess?’_ Cloud asked faintly.

_‘I didn’t exactly get a warning. One minute, the world was ending, and the next I was in your head. Breathe, Cloud.’_

The reminder was not exactly pointless.

_‘Right. So, the world is going to end. Uh, do I get to know when?’_

_‘Never, if I get a say in it. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure there was a glitch. I doubt me ending in your head was part of the plan. Still, I would rather not have involved you in this mess.’_

_‘You said the same thing about Angeal, and I told you it was fine.’_

There was a beat of silence.

_‘Wait. The apocalypse wouldn’t have anything to do with Angeal or… or Sephiroth, right? Except… please don’t tell me that it’s why you don’t like them.’_

Rain didn’t answer.

_‘Rain!’_

_‘What do you want me to say, Cloud?’_ he snapped, and Cloud once more spotted the rampaging emotions behind his barriers. _‘That no, your hero doesn’t have the potential to end all life on the planet? To destroy the planet herself? That it’s not a given that he’ll do it if nothing is done to stop him? Do you want me to lie to you?’_

_‘No!’_ Cloud yelled, horrified. _‘You can’t say something like that. You don’t know that!’_

_‘I saw it, Cloud! I lived and fought through it! How dare you tell me—’_

His anger and pain were nearly full on filtering through and Cloud could already feel the headache coming. He concentrated on not swaying under the assault.

_‘But the Sephiroth right now is not the one who would do that! He can’t be! I don’t know what could cause him to do that, but right now Sephiroth is a good person!’_

_‘One who didn’t hesitate to hurt someone he once called a friend!’_

_‘He was doing what he thought was right! Rain, please… You know I hate fighting with you, but you have to hear me out! You say Sephiroth has the power to destroy everything… but what if you can make sure he won’t? Think about what good he could do if he’s so powerful!’_

_‘I am trying not to!’_

It was nearly a shout, and so painfully raw Cloud felt tears come to his eyes.

_‘Do you think it’s easy, looking at him now and seeing what he could have become? But I’m done hoping, Cloud. I have no faith left. He took it all already.’_

Cloud closed his eyes against the tears and focused on breathing through the emotional turmoil—both Rain’s and his.

_‘Please, Rain…’_ he pleaded. _‘Please, please, leave it a chance. For me. On Friday, promise me you’ll keep your heart open and look at him, really look. And if you see nothing in him worth redeeming, if you can tell me it’s already too late, then I swear I’ll help you to the best of my ability. But if there is still hope, please, please don’t discard it.’_

Rain said nothing. He just hovered there, radiating anger and bitterness, and still that same gaping grief that Cloud thought he understood a little, now. And then he retreated to sleep without a word, taking his raging emotions with him.

Cloud took a painkiller for his headache and prepared himself to a sleepless night.

 

* * *

 

When Friday evening came, Zack led him to a dingy hotel in the lower city. Cloud had seen the place when they had brought Angeal there, but no one had thought it wise to let him try to shake off potential tails on his own, not even Cloud himself. Rain could maybe have told him how to do it, but he was still in “power nap” mode.

He had not awakened since their argument, and Cloud was for once not looking forward to having him conscious. It was the first time in his life he had ever fought with his brother and it nearly made him sick with guilt. But he would still hold his position until Rain could tell him he was wrong and be a hundred percent certain of it.

Meanwhile, he had had a lot of difficulty sleeping these past few days. Finding out your brother was a time traveller sent to basically kill your life model to prevent him for destroying the whole planet would do this to you, he guessed. But he could hardly explain that to Zack, who looked worried about the bags under his eyes.

“You know,” the First finally said when they exited the hotel elevator, “if it’s because of all this, I’m really sorry I got you involved, Spike.”

Cloud huffed and sent him a friendly shove.

“Stop that! I swear everyone I talk to lately will spend their time apologizing. I am here because I want to, okay?”

Zack smiled, genuinely moved, and looped an arm around his shoulders.

“You’re an awesome guy, Cloud.”

“I know. You can bask in my awesomeness, if you want.”

Zack barked a laugh.

“Careful, little guy, I may be rubbing off on you!”

Cloud growled and made to pinch him for the jab at his height, but Zack evaded and knocked on the door they had reached, snickering. Cloud pouted, and tried not to feel too much dread as he prodded Rain awake.

The door opened before Rain had fully regained consciousness. Kunsel appeared in the opening, nodded to Zack and moved aside to let them come through.

“Hey, Cloud,” he said as Cloud followed Zack in.

There was a hint of surprise in his voice. He had apparently not been warned that Cloud was involved. Cloud smiled back, rather surprised himself to see Kunsel in civilian clothes. It was not everyday the SOLDIER Second was seen without his helmet, so without the uniform? That was downright unexpected.

“Hi.”

Kunsel made to get out.

“I’ll be in the lobby, in case you were somehow followed.”

“You got it!” Zack answered. “Thanks, Kunsel, you’re the best!”

The SOLDIER smiled and closed the door, his footsteps fading in the corridor.

Cloud turned back to the room with no small amount of trepidation. Rain was awake and silent, nothing filtering from him.

The room was rather small, especially so with three large SOLDIERs in it. Angeal was sitting on one of the two beds, his back against the headboard. Sephiroth was already here, in the same uniform as last time, leaning against a wall out of sight of the door. Cloud tried not to stare at him, especially since the SOLDIER’s intimidating gaze was already on Zack and him.

The mood would have been rather solemn if Angeal hadn’t been smiling.

“Hey, Puppy. I was beginning to think you would ditch me here alone with Sephiroth.”

Puppy? Cute nickname. Cloud wouldn’t have pegged Angeal as the joking type.

Zack smiled bravely, but Cloud could tell he was affected to see his friend so light-hearted. Sephiroth had reported his gaze on the ex-SOLDIER, a hint of annoyance seeping through. Cloud found a chair on the opposite side of the room and sat to get out of the way. Zack went to sit on the free bed.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

Angeal huffed, amused.

“No need to tiptoe around it. Sephiroth wasn’t nearly as tactful. As I was saying, I feel fine. More than fine, in fact. You should know, Zack, you saw me sleeping. I haven’t slept that well since… since the start of this mess.”

Sephiroth tipped his head to Zack.

“Can you confirm it?”

“Yeah, after the first night, he slept like a baby while I was there. Kunsel said he napped a lot during the day, too. He didn’t even need the sedatives.”

Angeal leaned forward and sat crossed-legged. He rubbed his neck.

“I won’t lie and say I’m all better. I still have brief moments of disorientation, but they are barely flashes compared to the perpetual fog I used to navigate through. My thoughts are considerably clearer.”

“So it really was the wings, then. Good call, Cloud,” Zack added, grinning at him.

His happiness was contagious and Cloud found himself smiling right back.

“Yes, it appears I do owe you my thanks,” Angeal added. “Strife, was it? My thanks and my apologies, too. I’m glad you weren’t harmed by my fault. Honour dictates I do not let such a debt unpaid. If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know.”

“Uh…” Cloud could only answer, flummoxed.

He could see nothing left of the short-tempered, irrational man he had met before. Had the wing really made so much of an impact? No wonder Angeal had come for help, even despite what Zack had told him of the man’s pride! And speaking of, Zack seemed nearly overjoyed to hear his stilted words about honour and debt.

Sephiroth, though, was frowning.

“Let’s not rush to any conclusions. Before anything, I would like to know if there is any risk of a relapse. Strife, would you have any insight on this?”

Cloud gulped under the full weight of the slit pupils’ piercing gaze, but to his relief, Rain didn’t react hostilely to the scrutiny. He merely answered, and Cloud tried not to feel wounded by his monotone.

“It’s difficult to say, but I’m pretty sure nothing will happen without a new trigger. There might be circumstances in which it would come back, but if he is aware of it, he might stand a chance of fighting the full effects.”

“Circumstances?” Sephiroth repeated, raising a stern eyebrow.

Angeal had gone solemn too, obviously not liking the possibility of another instance of his ailment.

“Do you have any information, any at all, on these circumstances you speak of?” he asked, tense.

Cloud looked at his hands, pretending to think about it. Rain seemed reluctant to share the information, he could feel him weighing the pros and the cons of it. Finally, he yielded.

“If you were to come too close to the source of the J cells, I’m pretty certain it would happen again,” Cloud said.

Instantly, Rain’s hackles rose.

_‘I don’t like that look at all,’_ he hissed.

Cloud nearly forgot how glad he was to hear him speak to him again under the adrenaline that flooded him at his brother’s alarm. He soon understood what he was talking about as he noticed the incredibly intense look Sephiroth was subjecting him to.

“The source of the J cells,” the SOLDIER said slowly. “And how would your contact have heard of such classified information?”

“More importantly,” Zack barged in, and Cloud was ever so grateful, “where is it, that Angeal can make sure to never go there? Cloud, any idea?”

Still shaken, Cloud shook his head. If Rain knew, he was not telling anytime soon and, after Sephiroth’s reaction, he couldn’t really blame him. But Zack’s face fell, and Rain relented a bit.

“But I can tell you that to my knowledge, no one in Shinra knows either,” Cloud was only too happy to add.

Now they looked downright confused.

“Huh?” Zack said. “But these cells they inject to new SOLDIERs…”

Cloud shrugged, mimicking Rain’s bodyless answer.

“Probably spawned in laboratory from a limited supply, or something.”

“I very much doubt Hojo would…” Sephiroth began, but Cloud was already shaking his head.

“No, Hojo doesn’t know. Hollander doesn’t either. That I can guarantee.”

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, hummed, and fell in a pensive silence.

“Well,” Angeal sighed. “At least I’m warned. Thank you, Strife.”

Cloud nodded.

“How about it, then?” Zack asked Sephiroth. “What do we do, now?”

“I still feel disinclined to let you leave Midgar,” Sephiroth told Angeal. “We can’t completely dismiss the possibility of a relapse, and your main way of transportation is gone. Without it, it would be much easier for Shinra to track you.”

“But,” Zack said slowly, “Angeal could come back to Shinra now, right? The wings are gone, and he never outright opposed the company. He even helped against Genesis.”

Even he seemed doubtful, though. Sephiroth averted his eyes and Angeal shook his head.

“I very much doubt Shinra would be disposed to accept me back as anything else than a guinea pig in the labs. I’ll pass, thank you.”

“But…!” Zack tried to argue.

Angeal moved to sit on the edge of his bed and took Zack’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Zack, but those days are gone,” he said gently. “Even if I had the opportunity, I would not want to keep working for Shinra. Not when I have seen first-hand what they are capable of.”

Zack kept his head down, but there was a stubborn frown on his face.

“There are good people in Shinra, though…”

“Yes. Like you, Sephiroth, Strife and Kunsel. But I wonder how long good people can stay in this company.”

He was looking at Sephiroth as he said that, Cloud noticed with no small amount of trepidation. Sephiroth was looking right back, impassive.

“A fugitive with nowhere to go, fighting even to remember who he is. You are in no position to make that remark, Angeal.”

Angeal lowered his head with a sad smile.

“That’s true. But what is there in Shinra?”

“Truth.”

They all glanced at Sephiroth, surprised.

“Truth?” Zack repeated. “What kind of truth?”

Sephiroth was looking at Cloud, eyes intense.

“Strife, your contact seems to have access to information I have been trying to get a hold of for months now. Do you think he would be willing to negotiate with me?”

Rain had retreated further in his mind, but Cloud could still feel the anger and the anxiety emanating from him. Even if he was not saying anything, Cloud knew better than to make foolish promises.

He sighed, shoulders slumping.

“I’m sorry, sir. I would really like to help you, but my friend actually doesn’t trust you at all. When he realized you had been there the other day, well… it didn’t go over well. I only persuaded him to help Angeal, nothing more.”

Sephiroth’s gaze slid to the ground.

“I see,” was all he said.

He showed no outward reaction to the news, but Cloud could guess it was disappointing to him.

“I’ll… I’ll ask,” Cloud could only say. “I’ll try to tell him it’s important for you. I can’t… really guarantee more.”

“I understand. Thank you.”

An uneasy silence settled in the room. Finally, Angeal got up.

“Well. As for me, I intend to stay here a few more days to fully recover. I’ll also consider my options, but despite what you say, Sephiroth, I doubt staying under Shinra’s nose is really a good idea in the long run.”

Sephiroth didn’t answer. In the end, there was no ideal solution. Zack got up too.

“Angeal…”

Angeal smiled at him, a bit sad.

“It would probably be best if none of you came back to see me. You are putting yourself at risk. And poor Kunsel has sacrificed enough of his leave days to babysit me.”

Zack lowered his head.

“So. I guess this is goodbye, huh. Think we’ll see each other again, one day?” he asked, valiantly trying to smile.

Angeal put a hand on his shoulder, then engulfed him in a bear’s embrace.

“Time will tell, Puppy. Don’t forget me, okay?”

Zack managed a not too shaky laugh.

“Yeah, not a chance! You take care of yourself, Angeal.”

“You too.”

Angeal turned to Sephiroth.

“And you too, my friend. I don’t like your looks, these days. You push yourself too hard.”

Sephiroth closed his eyes and sighed, nearly inaudibly. For the first time, Cloud saw a hint of weariness on his face.

“Don’t patronize me,” he answered, but there was no bite to his voice.

He made to turn to the door but Angeal held out a hand to him. For a second, Sephiroth didn’t move. Then he took it, and shook it. They stayed like that a few moments, looking in each other’s eyes, and at that point, Cloud could really believe that they were good friends.

“Take care,” Sephiroth said.

Then he let go, put on his helmet and got out of the room. Angeal sighed.

“I understand more and more what you said in Modeoheim,” he told Cloud. “I hope when the time comes, I’ll be able to help him. In the meantime, keep an eye on him?” he added towards Zack.

The SOLDIER nodded with a crooked smile.

“Yeah, you can count on me. I’ll do my best!”

He made to get out too, and Cloud rose to follow him. He shook hands with Angeal, though he was still quite intimidated.

“Goodbye, Strife. Again, thank you for everything. I hope we meet again someday.”

“Yeah…” he said, though he wasn’t sure he really felt at ease with the man. “Goodbye, sir.”

Cloud ducked under the arm Zack was holding the door with and went a bit further in the corridor, giving the two men some privacy. Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen.

_‘Rain?’_ he asked tentatively.

He had felt him waver when Sephiroth had shown signs of tiredness. Cloud had looked at his idol today, really looked, and he had seen nothing of the monster Rain had seemed so afraid of. Sure, Sephiroth had kept to himself, and he had been somewhat cold towards Angeal, but he had never been so steely when talking to Cloud. Now that he thought about it, he probably held some grudge against Angeal and Genesis for leaving him alone in Shinra. That made sense. But that only went to prove he had been somewhat wounded by their behaviour, didn’t it? How could that pain belong to someone meant to destroy every life on the planet?

_‘Stop it!’_ Rain hissed suddenly. _‘Just… stop it, Cloud.’_

Cloud complied sadly.

_‘What have_ you _seen? Please, Rain.’_

_‘I don’t… I don’t know. I don’t know anymore. I need to think about this.’_

Rain retreated as far as he could go. Though it upset him, Cloud let him do so. Before long, Zack joined him and they began the sad journey back. Even Zack’s smile was miles away from his usual carefree one.

 

* * *

 

There had been no warning, nothing at all.

One moment everything was fine, and the next…

It happened in the middle of the night.

Cloud woke with a start, pain exploding in his head and leaving him gasping for breath, his eyes wide open but seeing nothing. He stumbled out of bed, barely feeling himself hit the corner of some furniture. His first reflex was to reach for his sword, but there was nothing to fight. Nothing but the overwhelming pain that was making him feel light-headed and the bile rising to his throat.

He staggered blindly to the bathroom, still seeing nothing but blackness and frantic flashes of light he knew were only in his head.

When he had completely emptied his stomach and the pain started to recede, he was left slumped against the toilet, out of breath and trying not to faint.

What the hell had _that_ been?!

He automatically reached for Rain, and recoiled when a new, white-hot spike of pain struck and actually forced a strangled scream out of him. _What?_ Wait... He reached inward again and again, desperately trying to get through despite the feeling his head was about to burst. Each time he was left feeling as if he was sticking his fingers in an open wound, frantically searching for a limb that wasn't there anymore.

Rain was gone.

He retched bile for a very, very long time.

 

* * *

 

He was shaking like a leaf. Distantly, he could feel it. He was curled up on the floor near his bed. From the corner of his eyes, he could see a grey daylight beginning to seep in from the window. In a few hours, he'd be expected for duty. Except he couldn't, he couldn't do it, he couldn't...

He was alone.

For the first time in as far as he could remember, he was completely, truly alone. Not matter what was happening in his life there had always, always been the faint presence of Rain, of his brother, and he hadn't always been able to help, far from it, but just knowing he was there, that soon, _soon_ , Cloud would be able to talk to him, share with him... And now he was gone and there was none of that left, because _how did you search for a voice in your head_?

He felt himself start to hyperventilate again and clung to his PHS as if to a lifeline. He couldn't stay alone, he felt he was going crazy. He wanted to call his mom, to tell her all about how _Rain was missing_ , except she believed that Rain had just been a figment of his imagination and that he had been gone for years, and she'd just think he was already crazy and get worried out of her mind. And he was not crazy, he was not, and he loved his mother, but she was always so down-to-earth, there was no way she'd believe him.

So he did the next best thing and called Zack.

It took quite a few rings to get through and Cloud was starting to panic again, totally forgetting that most sane people were asleep at that time of the day. Sure enough, when he finally picked up, Zack sounded very sleepy.

“... Spike?” he mumbled.

“Zack,” Cloud answered, and he was so relieved to hear his voice he nearly started bawling right there and then.

Something in his tone must have been alarming, because Zack instantly seemed wide awake.

“Whoa, Cloud, what's wrong? Where are you?”

“At home,” he said in an altered voice, trying hard not to break down. “Zack, could you... could you come over? I need...”

He stopped then, unable to keep going or even to remember what he was trying to say.

“I'll be right there. Don't move, okay? I'm coming.”

His voice was serious and worried and reliable and Cloud was trying not to think that Rain had always been there for him, too.

“O-okay...”

They hung up and Cloud went back to his battle against the tears pushing at his eyes. He couldn't just cry like a baby. He had promised himself he'd become strong, both for himself and for Rain. But it was so hard right now not to remember that he was only fifteen in a strange city far away from home, and suddenly utterly _alone_.

Zack was there in a record time of just under three minutes, and Cloud had totally kept his eyes on the time displayed by his PHS screen. The knocks came harsh and hurried, and he forced himself to get off the ground and stagger to the door. The panel slid open, Zack took one look at his face and barged in, taking him by the shoulders.

“What happened? What's wrong?”

Cloud felt himself begin to shake more than ever. Gritting his teeth in a mask of pain he couldn't even hope to hide, he shakily pressed the button to close and lock the door.

“So-someone... very important... is gone...”

Zack's mouth fell open in a wordless expression of sorrow. He engulfed him in a hug and no matter how much Cloud fought against it, the tears came. He started sobbing uncontrollably, desperately trying to stop. He didn't want Zack to see him like that. He didn't want to be a burden to him. He had only wanted to talk to someone, anyone, just to lighten the burning loneliness, and because he wanted so much to talk about Rain with someone who would just _understand_...

“I don't even know what happened,” he sobbed. “One moment he was there and the next... I don't know what to do, Zack!”

Zack stirred him to sit on the bed, settling next to him.

“Wait, wait Spike,” he murmured. “Slow down. D'you mean you and him were attacked or something?”

Cloud shook his head.

“No, there was... There was no one here. He just... he just disappeared, and I have no idea what happened or if he is even still...”

He closed his eyes, fighting both the tears and the urge to run once more to the bathroom. Rain couldn't be gone forever, he just couldn't!

Zack was pressing a comforting hand to his shoulder.

“Who are we talking about, Cloud? A friend? Someone from your family?”

Cloud had only ever told him about his mother, and he could see Zack was trying to figure out who could be so important to him. He shook his head again.

“You don't know him... Wait,” he realized suddenly with a mirthless laugh. “Yes. Yes, you do. I told you about him. The person who helped me help... your friend.”

Even now, he remembered to have enough sense not to say Angeal's name. Rain would have been proud. But Zack's eyes had widened.

“Your contact?” he hissed.

When Cloud nodded, he jumped from the bed, suddenly unable to stand still.

“Cloud, do you realize? Someone who leaks Shinra information, then suddenly disappears... This is bad!”

“I really doubt, I mean...”

Cloud felt his own eyes widen. He had not even thought of it himself, because there was no way anyone in Shinra would be aware of Rain's existence in the first place... was there? Except Rain had always alluded that Shinra was a frightening organization and that it was capable of far more and far worse that most people believed it to be. What _if_ they had realized someone was leaking information and they had traced it back to Rain somehow? But how would anything like that even be possible? Especially since there hadn't been anyone in the room when Cloud had awoken, of that he was sure.

But after all, what other option was there?

“I...” he gasped, not knowing anymore. “I...”

“This is bad,” Zack repeated, quickly doing one or two squats.

Then he whipped his PHS from his pocket.

“I need to warn Sephiroth. Angeal too; if he is still in town... Damn.”

Now Cloud was beginning to feel really alarmed. He had never seen Zack so worried.

“Zack...”

His friend turned to him, grim.

“We could all be in danger, Cloud. If Shinra learns about us and decides we have been conspiring or something... Damn.”

He had not thought about that, not thought about that at all. He felt a chill go through him. If Shinra _had_ taken Rain, why would they not know about Angeal too? And Sephiroth, if Sephiroth was in danger because of this...

Zack was on the phone. He sighed, relieved, when the line was apparently picked up.

“Hey, it's me. Yeah, sorry about the time, man!” he laughed, sounding completely plastered.

Cloud raised his eyebrows, impressed. If anyone was screening the call, they were sure to dismiss it as a drunken shenanigan.

“Waitnodon'thangupyet!” Zack said in a breath. “I forgot to tell you I was going to _that place_ , like, _right now_ , and if you could come by that would be really...”

He suddenly got the phone away from his ear and Cloud heard the chilly answer from where he was sitting.

“ _Good night, Zack._ ”

Definitely Sephiroth's voice. Zack sighed and closed his PHS.

“Well, hopefully he got the message...”

He turned back to Cloud.

“Hey... we need to be going. And I don't know if... just in case, pack what you would not want to leave behind, okay?”

Cloud gulped, but nodded. He didn't have much to pack anyway. The only “thing” he had ever cared about bringing with him anywhere was gone.

While he was quickly stuffing a bag with a change of clothes and some money, Zack got back on the phone. After a while, he shook his head, a worried frown creasing his brow.

“Can't reach Kunsel. I just have to hope the guy will be okay. You ready?”

Cloud swung his sword on his back and nodded. His face was still crumpled by grief, but determination had joined it. If there was even the slightest chance Shinra was involved in Rain's disappearance, then he had a shot at finding out what had happened to him.

They got out and sneaked in the sleepy upper city. It was still the wee hours of the morning and—Cloud checked his PHS—the first train wasn't due for another twenty minutes. He stayed close to Zack while they made their way to the station and tried not to pay to much attention to the utter silence in his head.

Thankfully, Zack was the type who could banter in the most tense of situations. It eased both of their nerves, and certainly made them less suspicious to the few early birds crossing the streets and waiting on the train platform.

Still, they were tense as they made their way to the decrepit hotel Angeal had been staying at. Cloud was about ready to burst with nerves when they finally made it and were greeted by a very sleepy employee.

“Room?” he asked in a bored tone.

Clearly, it wouldn't have fazed him to get new clients at the time most were starting to wake up.

“Nope,” Zack greeted cheerfully. “Room 32 still booked?”

The man had no qualms in checking—so much for his clients' privacy.

“Sure.”

“Thanks. Let's check it out,” Zack told Cloud.

He nodded and they made their way to the third floor. They took the stairs, neither of them could have borne to wait for the elevator.

“Hopefully he's gone and someone else booked the room,” Zack breathed.

It had been a few days since the last time they had come, it was possible. Zack made a beeline for the door and knocked firmly. After a while, a wary voice came from inside.

“Who is it?”

Zack deflated. Even Cloud could recognize Angeal's voice.

“Guess,” Zack sighed.

A moment, then the door opened a crack and a single eye scanned them. Angeal opened wider and silently motioned them inside. His feet were bare and he was only wearing pants and his undershirt, but it was obvious he understood they would not be here if the situation was not worrying. He closed the door and turned to them.

“What happened?”

“Cloud's contact has disappeared.”

Angeal's face became as grim as Zack's had been when he had learned the news.

“How? Were there signs of struggle, or...?”

Zack turned expectantly to Cloud, who found he couldn't answer.

“Huh...”

“It makes a lot of difference if he was taken willingly or not,” Angeal said. “If he decided his loyalty was to Shinra after all...”

“No!” Cloud loudly exclaimed. “No way! You think he would have betrayed you? No way, Rain is not like that! He choose to help you, he would not have backed down now!”

Angeal was frowning.

“Betrayed me? Wouldn't that be betraying you too?”

Having seen Cloud's breakdown earlier, Zack caught up rather quickly.

“Cloud, have you known this... Rain... for long?”

Cloud deflated, realizing he was saying too much. He hadn't even meant to use Rain's name; it felt extremely weird hearing someone else say it.

Two precise knocks sounded at the door. Angeal raised an eyebrow at Zack, who sighed in relief.

“Thank the Planet, he came.”

Angeal neared the door and asked in a low voice:

“Yes?”

“Let me in.”

There was no mistaking that voice. Angeal opened the door and stepped aside to let a familiar SOLDIER Second come in.

Sephiroth removed his helmet and glared at Zack.

“This had better be good, Fair.”

“Oh, it is. Like I was saying, Cloud's contact went missing.”

“How?”

Cloud couldn't help an angry movement. They all turned to him, surprised. Normally he would have balked at the attention, but they were insulting his brother, his brother who had gone missing and was maybe even... just because he had been trying to help!

“ _Look,_ ” he said, so angry he was nearly glaring at Sephiroth. “I know you think Rain may have betrayed us, but he wouldn't! I would know, Planet, it's my brother we are talking about, here!”

Quite a few eyebrows raised in the room.

“Your brother?” Zack exclaimed. “You never told me you had a brother!”

“Strife,” Sephiroth said, frowning. “I took the liberty of checking your file when we first met. Your only recorded family is a mother in Nibelheim.”

Cloud sighed.

“That's because Rain and I aren't blood related. We just... I grew up with him, okay? I have known him for as long as I can remember and he has always been there for me. He raised me nearly as much as my mother did.”

“And yet he let you join Shinra when he obviously knew what it was capable of?” Angeal asked, doubtful.

Cloud had no qualm glaring at him, which was clearly surprising to all three SOLDIERs in the room.

“He said it was my choice, that he couldn't possibly take that from me! I knew he didn't approve of it, but I still made that choice!”

“Guys, guys,” Zack said, trying to placate everyone, “we don't have time for this.”

“Zack is right,” Sephiroth sighed. “Even if that “Rain” was taken against his will, eventually, he will talk. If it is Shinra that has him, we are the next targets.”

The cool certainty with which it was said sent a chill down Cloud's spine. “Eventually, he will talk”? Could you even torture a bodyless soul? Cloud fervently hoped not.

“They can't go against their only two SOLDIER Firsts, though,” Zack argued. “Especially with Sephiroth's reputation. Right?”

“I wouldn't put anything past Shinra at this point,” Angeal answered bitterly. “If you are killed, they wipe out a part of the city with you and they can claim it was a tragic catastrophe and you died trying to save lives. If you are taken alive, well, I don't want to know exactly how manipulative they can get... with needles or otherwise.”

“Dude!” Zack exclaimed, eyes wide. “Think maybe you've got too much imagination?”

“I am... uncertain how far-fetched this would be,” Sephiroth said.

He sounded grim, and his faltering meant a lot.

“But if we are worrying for nothing, then it's us leaving that would make us targets,” Zack reasoned.

“In any case, Angeal needs to leave.”

Said man was already dressing and strapping his sword on.

“I agree. Besides, this place makes me feel boxed in and the walls are too thin for this conversation. Let's get out of here.”

In that they all agreed. They filed out of the room and out the back door of the building, and set off through small alleys towards one of the city main gates. They were painfully remarkable, with one man in full SOLDIER garb and two others carrying huge swords, and Cloud didn't see how they could ever hope to make it if Shinra was after them.

Zack and Sephiroth were still arguing in hushed voices about the necessity of fleeing the corporation. Angeal slipped to the back of the group without Cloud noticing. Two minutes later, there was a scuffle behind them and Zack, Sephiroth and Cloud all drew their swords.

Angeal was battling a red-headed girl in a black suit that Zack seemed to recognize.

“Cissnei!” he gasped.

Right on cue, nearly a dozen men and women in black suits—Turks, Cloud realized—emerged from adjacent alleys or downright fell from the sky. They had them surrounded in a heartbeat.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncorrected chapter...

Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud found themselves back to back, eyes on the ring of Turks all around them.

“Too bad, yo,” another red-head, a guy this time, said. “Would have been easier if we could have waited 'till Hewley went off on his own.”

Angeal disengaged the girl he had been fighting and backed off towards his friends and Cloud.

“You were followed, Zack,” he growled quietly.

“Oh man, Cissnei,” Zack could only groan.

The red-headed girl—Cissnei—shrugged, looking somewhat apologetic.

“Sorry Zack, business is business. You managed to throw me off your tail quite a few times when coming here, so I figured you were hiding something important.”

Someone emerged from the shadows, and Cloud started when he recognized him.

“Tseng!”

Somehow, having to oppose someone he had previously fought side by side with made this seem much more sinister… although the Turk looked completely unaffected.

“Strife. Zack,” he said, nodding to said SOLDIER. “And... Sephiroth, I presume?”

Sephiroth pulled his helmet off and threw it away, not dropping his battle stance for a second. He looked just as calm as Tseng.

“I admit I had not expected you to be involved in this, Sephiroth,” Tseng said. “For Angeal to come back to Midgar was reckless enough, but for you to become his accomplice...”

“Enough about that!” Zack growled, menacing. “What have you done with _—_ ”

“Zack,” Sephiroth cut off, not taking his eyes off Tseng. “That's not what they are here for.”

Tseng tilted his head, clearly intrigued.

“We are only here for Angeal,” he conceded. “If you agree to not stand in the way, we will overlook your collaboration with him. I'm sure the President will accept your will to help a friend, but understand that we cannot leave him to wander freely, especially after what happened with Genesis. I am sure you see my point, Sephiroth.”

Zack was nearly growling, and didn't seem in the slightest disposed to let the Turks take Angeal away. Cloud could understand that. Zack had been unwilling to openly betray Shinra just minutes before, but if it was his friend and mentor's life on the line, it was obvious he'd do it in a heartbeat.

As for Cloud... well, his loyalty to Shinra was non-existent in the face of his loyalty to Zack, especially since he had learned so much about the corporation from what had happened to Angeal and what few things Rain had told him. His only worry was that Sephiroth might not follow. He had said he had things to do in Shinra. Would he be willing to betray Angeal to get to this truth he was searching for? And if so, what would Cloud do?

“And, Angeal,” Tseng was saying, “please do not think about escaping by flying. We have the rooftops covered.”

Sephiroth scoffed. Cloud still felt a little weak in the knees when he heard that voice. Would he be able to leave Shinra without Sephiroth? But then...

“Thanks for the warning,” that very same voice said.

A fireball exploded right in Tseng's face and the Turk went flying. Before Cloud could even understand what he was seeing, an arm looped around his waist and he was projected right through the residual fire, barely remembering to protect his face. Sephiroth's booted feet hit the ground and Cloud's own barely did the same before he was driven forward at a pace he hadn't thought his legs could sustain. They couldn't, by the way. Sephiroth was half carrying him. Cloud's brain was still trying to assimilate that.

He heard cries and the clang of weapons behind them, then two heavy set of footsteps that could only belong to Zack and Angeal. Gunshots rung from the rooftops, and Cloud nearly felt his heart stop when he saw Sephiroth's sword rise in impossibly quick strikes to intercept a few bullets.

Shinra's Number One SOLDIER led them through a complete maze of streets, seemingly knowing perfectly well where he was going. Cloud was desperately trying to sustain the rhythm so as to not burden him, but his weight didn't seem to make much of a difference to the man. Turks were quick, and bullets still sometimes rained around them, but they were loosing ground.

Then they reached a new street and suddenly, three black suits were waiting for them. Zack and Angeal shot forward to intercept the Turks, while Sephiroth simply jumped over them—jumped! that far from the ground, Cloud's heart nearly stopped—and raced to a nearby pick-up truck with the logo of the Shinra company.

He none too gently threw Cloud in the back, and Cloud tried to not feel too offended and to not hit his head against the hard metal, while his idol wrenched the door open and threw himself at the wheel. The vehicle came to life and burst forward with a whine of overworked tires. They passed the battle and Angeal and Zack flawlessly jumped in the back, with Zack adding the nice touch of an Earth spell to unbalance their enemies.

Cloud bunched himself in a corner and tried to not be in the way when Angeal moved forward to knock on the driver's back window.

“We can't use a Shinra vehicle!” he yelled above the engine. “They'll just track us!”

“I know,” Sephiroth answered calmly. “But I needed to get this back.”

He reached down to the feet of the passenger seat and Cloud felt himself pale, then begin to turn green. Having motion sickness was already hard enough when the driver was _looking at the road_. Sephiroth raised a duffel bag and a long package swathed in fabric. There was no doubt that this was the famous Masamune.

“Eh,” Angeal said. “Came prepared for anything, did you?”

Sephiroth grunted, his eyes mercifully back on the street.

“So we need another car?” Zack yelled.

“I can do that!” Cloud exclaimed.

Angeal and Zack turned to look at him expectantly.

“Well, if you are alright with illegally acquired vehicles, anyway,” Cloud smiled, happy to feel useful.

Angeal frowned, but Zack elbowed him and smiled back.

“I'm sure we'll live, Spike.”

Two minutes later, Sephiroth stopped in a deserted street with a scream of abused brakes. Just when Cloud was really beginning to feel ill, too. He was only too happy to hop down and run to a nearby car. Not of prime age maybe, but he seemed to remember this brand had good engines. They didn't have much time, so he smashed the window in and opened the door from the inside. He silently apologized to the owner; hopefully they could afford to lose a car.

“Hey!” someone screamed from one of the nearby buildings, making him cringe. “What are you band of thieves doing?! Just wait until I get down here and...!”

Zack jovially raised his sword to salute the man.

“You have a good sense of civic duty! Keep it up!”

Seeing such an upbeat man with such a large and heavy sword was apparently too much for the man's sense of civic duty. Meanwhile, Cloud had brushed the glass fragments from the driver seat and was fiddling with the wires under the dashboard. Zack leaned in and whistled in admiration.

“Where did you learn that, Spike?”

“Rain,” he grunted. “He had... has a thing for mechanics. More of a motorbike guy, though.”

“Taught you useful skills, that's for sure.”

That was probably sarcasm, but Cloud got back to him when the engine sputtered to life. He let out a cry of delight. But suddenly he could hear several cars approaching and it seemed like a very bad sign.

Cloud barely saw Zack move from the door before Sephiroth appeared, took him by the back of his shirt and flung him in the passenger seat. It was getting harder and harder to not feel offended to be such a lightweight, but he quickly retrieved his dangling legs so Sephiroth could seat. Zack and Angeal threw themselves in the back and they were gone in the flashy, mechanic abusive way Cloud was learning to recognize as Sephiroth's preferred driving method. Rain would have hated that. Cloud's stomach did too, though for completely different reasons.

Bullets rained behind them, but the Turks were still too far away in the narrow alleys to catch up to a SOLDIER with superhuman reflexes. Five minutes later, they were out of the city.

 

* * *

 

Cloud was curled up in the passenger seat, utterly miserable. Sephiroth was throwing him curious looks.

“I apologize for manhandling you earlier, Strife. This was the most efficient way at the time.”

Cloud nodded shakily, not opening his eyes nor his mouth for fear of vomiting.

“Are you ill?”

“Oh man,” Zack exclaimed from the backseat. “I had totally forgotten! You've got motion sickness, right, Cloud?”

Cloud groaned in misery.

“Well, congratulations Sephiroth. Your driving probably didn't improve anything,” Angeal said with what seemed to be his usual brand of dry humour.

“You know perfectly well I am an adequate driver when the situation doesn't call for mindless speed,” Sephiroth answered.

If Cloud hadn't known better, he would have said the man sounded offended.

“I apologise Strife, but I'm afraid we can't stop until we're sufficiently far away from Midgar. If you need me to pull over, though, please say so.”

Well, his role model was talking to him and politely worrying about his health. He could at least find the strength to open his mouth.

“Don't worry about me, sir,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “I'm used to this. I'll be fine.”

Then he shut up, because he could feel his stomach start to heave. Damn, this sucked. He couldn't even complain to Rain, who'd always been sympathetic, because _someone_ or _something_ had gone and stolen his brother from him! Speaking of which...

“What did you mean about the Turks?” he quickly blurted, before the others could start another line of discussion or his stomach decided to veto the motion. “That they weren't there about Rain?”

Zack had been trying to ask to Tseng what they had done to Rain, and Sephiroth had interrupted. What did he know that Cloud didn't? He peeked through his eyelashes and found Sephiroth's piercing cat eyes watching him.

“Yeah, I had been wondering about that,” Zack said.

Sephiroth returned his eyes to the road.

“You heard Cissnei and Tseng. The Turks were here because Cissnei was following you and your behaviour tipped her on Angeal's presence in the city. They were here to recover Angeal, and only that. They were clearly unwilling to bring you or me into the battle, Zack. And you saw Tseng's reaction when you nearly asked him about Strife's brother: he didn't know what you were talking about.”

“Then Shinra doesn't have Rain?” Zack asked.

Cloud's hope deflated.

“That, or he was taken by a department that wasn’t the Turks’—which seems unlikely—or they have him but they know nothing about his accomplices.”

“Which would mean Rain hadn't talked,” Angeal said.

“Yes.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Then, it's pretty certain Cloud's brother didn’t betray us, right?” Zack asked.

“It seems that way.”

Cloud heaved a sigh of relief. He could not have borne it if they had all kept doubting Rain.

“Very well,” Angeal conceded. “Then Strife is here for his brother, and Zack is here because puppies are notably too loyal.”

“Hey, quit it with the puppy thing, would you?”

“But why are _you_ here, Sephiroth? I know you, you could easily have accepted to stand aside and still not helped in my capture. That's what I expected you to do.”

Cloud had to open his eyes, surprised. He saw Sephiroth slid an unreadable glance to the rear-view mirror.

“Did you, now?”

Angeal barely looked apologetic.

“You always were goal-driven, Sephiroth. A few days ago, you refused to leave Shinra, stating there was information you were after. What changed?”

A slow smirk made his way to Sephiroth's lips.

“Tseng.”

“Huh?” Zack grunted, lost.

“Tseng was kind enough to reveal Strife's contact was apparently trustworthy. Strife, your brother was the only source in my reach that ever seemed to hold the kind of information I want _and_ willingly revealed part of it. Do you understand?”

Cloud stared, motion sickness nearly forgotten in his awe.

“You want to find Rain.”

Sephiroth nodded, eyes on the road. The wind rushing in from the broken window kept playing with his hair. Cloud felt his hero-worship awaken with a vengeance. Here he was, seating right next to his idol who actually wanted to save the most important person in his life.

“Well, if we are finding Rain, then why are we driving _away_ from Shinra?” Zack actually said.

“We”. Zack had said “we”!

“Zack...” Cloud said hoarsely.

His friend reached out and ruffled his hair, laughing.

“Come on, you didn't think I wouldn't help, right? I mean, the guy helped Angeal. It's only fair!”

“Yes, quite,” Angeal promptly said. “Honour dictates such a debt does not remain unpaid.”

Cloud's eyes nearly bugged out. Angeal too? There were _three_ SOLDIER Firsts ready to help Cloud Strife, trooper un-extraordinaire, find his missing brother? This was surreal.

Sephiroth didn't sound phased at all.

“We are driving away, Zack, because the Turks will be on high alert looking for us right now. When they figure out we left Midgar, they won't expect us to come back. Then we can slip in with more chances of success. Besides, we need a safe place to regroup, rest and plan.”

“Oh, right. Sounds good.”

A short silence fell in the car. Despite everything that had happened, the sun was barely rising. Now that the adrenaline was gone, Cloud was beginning to feel the exhaustion of the night creeping on him. Apparently, Zack did too.

“Well,” he yawned, stretching. “Wake me up if you need me.”

That being said, he settled in his seat and promptly fell asleep. Cloud tried to do the same despite the heavy discomfort of his roiling stomach. In his semi-asleep state, he could hear Angeal and Sephiroth talking in hushed voices. There was something soothing about their calm, low tones, as if they hadn’t all just become fugitives alone against the most powerful organization on the planet.

Cloud soon slipped under.

 

* * *

 

He awoke with a start, covered in sweat and Rain's name on his lips. Angeal turned to look at him, but then quickly returned his attention to the trees around them.

It was their second week away from Midgar, and by then Zack, Angeal and Sephiroth had all gotten used to the nightmares that shook him from his sleep a few times per night. It had been especially embarrassing the first time it had happened, in the car while they were fleeing from Midgar, but by now Zack wasn't the only one getting worried.

He had heard Angeal and Sephiroth wonder if he was suffering from post-traumatic stress from Rain's disappearance, especially since the only thing they ever managed to get from him when they asked how he had discovered his brother was missing was incoherent and nearly tearful babbling.

Yep, embarrassing alright.

Cloud sighed and got up, deciding he didn't want to try and go back to sleep. He approached Angeal instead.

“Do you want me to relay you?” he whispered.

Angeal seemed to consider it, then nodded in acceptance. He rose and made his way to his own sleeping bag. Cloud settled to watch the camp for the last hours before daybreak.

They had managed to get supplies by stopping in a few towns and gathering what they needed in modest quantities at a time. At least they had more than the contents of Cloud and Sephiroth's bags, and the clothes Angeal and Zack had had on their backs. It was a good thing, since they couldn’t afford to spend more than one night at a time at an inn. Their whole group was already too remarkable as it was, if the Turks decided to ask around for two muscular men, a tall one and a teenager. When in town, they did their best to never be seen together and generally split in two pairs: Cloud and Zack, Angeal and Sephiroth.

Cloud was grateful he hadn’t left Midgar in his Shinra grunt uniform. He had kept the shoulder guards and the practical brown shoes and gloves, but the scarf, the knee guards, the blue tunic and pants would have been too noticeable. He had replaced them with a long-sleeved undershirt, a tan leather plastron and some sturdy black pants. Angeal and Zack had since their escape had to make similar changes to their SOLDIER First attires; even Angeal understood that while travelling in a group and without his wings, he had to make concessions to discretion.

Surprisingly, the most reluctant one had been Sephiroth. Cloud sneaked him a glance over his shoulder. Every time they entered a town, Sephiroth had to hide his too recognizable hair under a cap and his eyes behind sunglasses. The leather had to go, too, to be replaced by a dark grey turtleneck and some sensible pants. Though Sephiroth bore it stoically while they were in town, he hadn’t seem to appreciate it when Angeal had one day suggested it might be best he keep the disguise on at all times.

“You really stand out,” Angeal had reasoned. “The roads may not be as populated as the cities, but we are bound to be noticed anyway. We don’t need your hair giving us away.”

“I hope for your sake you are not suggesting I cut it, Angeal.”

“I am not that suicidal…”

Cloud admitted to himself he was a little surprised that Sephiroth had been so vexed by Angeal’s suggestion. Although the SOLDIER had disguised himself before and had eventually conceded this was necessary, for the next few hours he had kept on a frown that suggested it really didn’t agree with him. Cloud still sometimes caught him sliding a longing glance to the bag where his leather uniform now resided permanently. Did Sephiroth regret it because it was more practical or—dare he think it?—because of vanity?

Cloud felt his lips twitch and turned back before his staring woke Sephiroth up. Wouldn’t Rain love to know the man he feared could be immature over something as inconsequential as his clothes? Cloud’s smile dropped before it was fully formed. He’d give anything to be able to tell him.

Cloud rubbed his tired eyes and grimly focused on his watch.

 

* * *

 

“When _are_ we going back?” Zack asked over breakfast. “Not that I don't love you guys to bits and that spending time camping in the wild and playing spies in Kalm isn't fun, but this is gonna get, you know, boring.”

“Same old Puppy,” Angeal sighed.

“You’re just saying that because you miss your flower girl,” Cloud snorted with a pale sliver of humour.

“Hey!”

Zack gave him a shove, but as he was obviously happy he had made a joke, it lacked any real edge.

“I'll have you know I'm worried about Kunsel,” he replied haughtily. “We still don't know for sure that the Turks aren't aware he was involved.”

“We can't go back so soon,” Sephiroth said. “There has been no mention of your absence or mine on the radio news, which means they are still unsure of how to cover up for our disappearance. They might have a plan to bring us back in the company’s folds or to eliminate us. They’ll be looking for us.”

“Not to mention we have yet to find a suitable plan to get information on Rain's location,” Angeal added. “If the Turks have him, this will be very hard.”

“Indeed.”

“Well, what if they get him out of Midgar while we wait? It will be ten times harder to find him, then!”

Cloud frowned at his breakfast. He had had a while to think this over. Until now he had kept secret the true nature of Rain, but… what if there was really no way Shinra had him? These dreams he kept having… were they really just the result of a traumatic experience? How come, then, that they were so clear and always so repetitive?…

He sneaked a look at the three arguing SOLDIERs. They were all here to find Rain. Whether or not it was Shinra they were going after, didn't he owe them what few information he might have? He couldn't tell them everything, because there was no way they'd believe the soul of a warrior from the future had been in his head since he was a child, but…

“Hey, hum… everyone…”

They all expectantly turned to him.

“Did you remember something, Strife?” Angeal asked. “Anything might be useful.”

Cloud fidgeted nervously. Zack swung an arm around his shoulders and smiled reassuringly at him. Angeal and Sephiroth had probably told him about their PTSD hypothesis.

“It's just… it's not…”

He sighed, defeated, and put his bowl down.

“Look, you're all going to think this is weird and all but… I might have… a clue on where Rain is right now.”

“That’s great, Cloud!” Zack said, enthusiastic. “Well, where is he?”

“I don't… know that exactly.”

They seemed puzzled. Cloud burrowed his hands in his blond spikes and tried not to lose courage.

“Like I said, you're all going to think that this is weird and that I'm not a hundred percent sane, but… you've got to believe me. I've got a really, really good reason to think my nightmares are clues to Rain's location right now.”

Angeal and Sephiroth exchanged knowing looks. Zack looked startled and hesitant.

“Uh, Spike…”

“No!” he yelled. “Please, you have got to trust me! I am not saying that because I am traumatized or whatever. There really _is_ a good reason why these dreams could be more than they seem, I promise! I may not be able to tell you why right now, but it's true!”

Rain had spent so much time in his head, who said he couldn’t be trying to send a message to Cloud through his dreams?

Sephiroth hummed, his face unreadable.

“And besides,” Cloud soldiered on, heart hammering in his chest, “you said we can't go back to Midgar right now. Well, if these dreams are true, then Rain is not in Midgar. What have we got to lose if we check it out rather than play hide-and-seek for a few more weeks?”

“He's got a point here,” Zack said, smiling feebly.

Cloud could have kissed him. Even if he may have said that to escape the boredom of more time stuck camping in the forest.

“You have to admit,” Sephiroth began calmly, “that this is a rather suspicious claim, Strife.”

Cloud lowered his head, disheartened.

“After all, none of us have even met this Rain. You are our only guarantee that anyone went missing in the first place, let alone that a man named Rain does exist.”

He stared at Sephiroth, startled.

“Hey!” Zack protested. “I have known Cloud for months now. He is no liar! Besides, what would he have to gain from all of this?”

“I wonder,” Sephiroth murmured.

He looked pensive, and his slit green eyes were locked on Cloud. With a shiver, Cloud realized what he meant. For all Sephiroth knew, Cloud could be completely delusional and have tricked himself into thinking he had a brother named Rain. After all, Cloud grew up a lonely child in a backwater town, and he had exhibited rather suspicious behaviour since they had fled Midgar: the nightmares, the panic fits when they questioned him. He might have seemed insane for less than that. He would know; it was exactly because of that that he had never told another soul about Rain.

He opened his mouth, feeling nauseous, but he had no idea what to say to protest.

Thankfully Zack clapped his shoulder, looking protective.

“Hey, listen,” he said defensively, “whether or not Cloud is right, it's like he said: we've got nothing to lose if we check it out.”

“You say that, but we don't even know where it is he would have us going,” Angeal argued. “I am not saying I don't believe you, Strife. I have certainly seen my share of strange happenings lately. But it _is_ a surprising claim to make.”

Cloud nodded, still feeling faint, but a little better. At least Zack and Angeal were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and Sephiroth didn't seem inclined to outright disagree with them.

He closed his eyes and sighed, releasing a little of the tension that had accumulated in his shoulders.

“Well... My dreams always start the same way. I’m flying over a very large body of water, probably an ocean. I am going right towards a coast, getting there fast. The nearer I get, the more I see forests, mountains and lot of snow. I'm pretty sure it's the Northern Continent, even though I've only ever been there once on that mission to Modeoheim.”

He gave them an interrogating glance. Zack nodded, encouraging him to continue.

“Then the scene switches, and I am at the edge of a forest. It's a very weird one. It’s dense, and it looks dark under the trees, but I think the trunks are all white. There is a strange atmosphere, too—like it's really silent.”

Angeal frowned.

“A forest on the Northern Continent, that's somewhat vague. Especially since some of the details could just come from your subconscious. It is a dream, after all.”

Cloud shrugged, not knowing how to answer that.

Sephiroth sighed and gracefully got up.

“Well, if it's decided, we might as well get on our way. Let's go get the car.”

 

* * *

 

Finding a boat for the Northern Continent was no easy task since they were still trying to be inconspicuous. They abandoned their stolen car and bundled all the swords together in a package they swathed in fabric so that Angeal could carry it on his shoulder.

Sephiroth had to spend the entire crossing with his cap and sunglasses on or holed up in his cabin, and it clearly grated on his nerves. It would have amused Cloud if it hadn’t been his fault in the first place the man had to hide. And for what? A chimera for all the SOLDIER knew. He didn’t think Sephiroth was very happy with him right now.

Once on the continent, they just might have had to try all the forests around if it hadn’t been for Zack’s friendliness and a providential inn-keeper who happened to have quite an interest in the local legends.

Within a few days, they were standing at the edge of the so-called Sleeping Forest… Too bad they had already been there five minutes ago and had been aiming for the other side of the woods.

“Right,” Zack said, blinking. “I think I am starting to get what that guy at the inn was saying.”

“Fascinating,” Sephiroth said, eyeing the trees with growing interest. “I was certain we were heading to the North.”

“This is not good,” Angeal sighed. “How are we going to go through?”

“Any idea, Spike?”

“Sorry, no. The dreams just go right through the forest… But it’s definitely this one, I can tell.”

“Shoot. Well, can’t we just go around it? Where are we going anyway? What happens next in your dreams?”

“A city…” he said hesitantly. “I think there is a city in there; but it’s deserted… at least in my dreams it is.”

“A city in the forest?” Angeal asked, doubtful. “It seems strange. I have never heard of any city of importance around here, even an historical one.”

“I am ready to believe it,” Sephiroth said, to all of their surprises. “Strife told us of a forest with a strange atmosphere, and here we are… My sense of direction has never been as thoroughly fooled as in these woods. I can readily believe they have their load of secrets.”

“We still have no way of going through, though,” Zack whined.

“We’ll have to see if we can find anyone living around here, maybe a village,” Angeal suggested. “They may have more information.”

“Or Cloud’s dreams could decide to be a little more helpful,” Zack said, addressing a hopeful look to his friend.

Cloud grimaced and shrugged.

“Don’t get your hopes too high on that.”

Cloud’s dreams did decide to be a little more helpful. After a few hours of following the edge of the forest without seeing any traces of habitations, they camped not too far from the trees. Barely two hours later, Cloud woke all of them up.

“A harp!” he blurted, eyes wide. “We have to dig up a harp!”

The three SOLDIERs exchanged weird looks. Cloud could tell it would take a while to convince them, this time.

 

* * *

 

“I still can’t believe this worked,” Zack repeated, awed.

The forest was definitely not sleeping anymore. The tall white trees may have been intimidating, but birds were chirping and the underbrush moved a few meters away, betraying the presence of some small animal. Most importantly, it had been half an hour already and they had yet to end up at their starting point.

“Thank the Planet,” Sephiroth answered wearily. “I just might have had to skewer you if all this digging had been for nothing, Strife.”

“R-right.”

Cloud gulped, not reassured in the least by the man’s calm. Who knew Sephiroth could be so impatient? But finding the harp had been a long process, and they had had to go back to a town for digging utensils, too, which had made them lose a day and had given everyone plenty of time to doubt this would ever work. Cloud had been the first one to do so—his dreams had led them true until now, but the harp thing had seemed really random.

Well, if this was working, then it was a definite proof his dreams were more than that, right? It meant Rain had to be in that deserted city!

“We shouldn’t be far, now,” he whispered, heart beating fast.

He was unable to mask the growing hope in his eyes. Zack swung an arm around his shoulders and squeezed, smiling reassuringly.

“I’m sure we’ll find him, little guy.”

Cloud didn’t even frown at the height jab. Angeal and Sephiroth too looked to be in high spirits. Evidently, they had drawn the same conclusion he had: there was no longer any trace of doubt in their eyes.

Sephiroth tugged on his gloves. He had put his leather battle-gear back on that morning, and Cloud wondered if he expected a fight. Like the strange tree trunks, his silver hair seemed to catch all the light under the canopy.

Within a few hours, they reached the Forgotten City.

 

* * *

 

Silence had befallen the group. The abandoned city was an awe-inspiring sight, and it even got to Cloud, who at this point could barely think about anything other than his brother.

“Who could have built all that?” Zack whispered, intimidated.

No one answered him.

If its guardian forest had awoken, the city hadn’t. It stood sprawling and silent, its streets large and strangely organic against a stratified ground littered with what seemed to be seaweeds and corals. Only the wind whispered in the abandoned doorways and the blind windows of the shell-like buildings.

Cloud led them through the middle of the town. The main street headed straight to a tight grove of these strange white trees and slipped in. In a clearing among the trees, a lone, big shell house stood overlooking a pond. A single column of sunlight illuminated the scene. There was such a strong feeling of peace here that Cloud would have wanted to linger if he hadn’t been so intent on finding Rain.

“In here?” Sephiroth said in a low voice.

He looked wary, and he probably was whispering less by deference like Zack had been, and more so as to not alert any potential enemies.

“There is a passage to an underground area,” Cloud answered in kind.

Sephiroth nodded and pointedly took the lead, Masamune in hand. It felt somewhat blasphemous to see a weapon drawn in this place. Cloud shook the thought out: he was here to get his brother back, even if it meant battling whoever took him.

They didn’t encounter anyone inside, though. They silently searched the house, until Zack at last stumbled on the hidden passage. Sephiroth slithered inside and Cloud immediately followed him, Zack and Angeal bringing the rear.

It soon became clear this place was even stranger than the whole city. The more they descended, the more it seemed like they were going down _stairs of light_ , and the darkness all around was so thick it felt like void. Cloud could not even see or touch walls anymore. He concentrated on the stairs and tried not to think of what would happen if he tripped and fell.

“This is crazy,” Zack breathed from behind him, and Cloud could only agree.

It became even more so when they saw their destination: suspended in the darkness below them, ramparts of light wrapped around an island of solidity. Through the translucent walls, they began to discern buildings. Soon, they set foot on the strangest assembly of turrets and catwalks, almost like someone’s unfinished castle.

Sephiroth signalled them to stay back and Cloud obeyed, heart in his throat. The SOLDIER silently glided forward to take a peek at the rest of the light encased place. In the quiet, Cloud heard the gasp he couldn’t quite muffle and gulped, hand tightening around the handle of his sword.

But Sephiroth motioned them forward and Cloud rushed in, breathless. He never could remember the end of his dreams. He remembered the house, he remembered the stairs, he vaguely remembered the strange castle. What else was there, he discovered at that moment.

The turrets rose from a lake that took up most of the ground surface between the transparent ramparts and sparkled in their light. On the opposite end from the castle, a round altar was suspended over the water, accessible only by a series of pillars. But what really snatched Cloud’s attention was the large, green crystal that shot out from the middle of the lake, seemingly glowing from the inside. In the heart of the crystal, a human body faced them, eyes closed as if sleeping.

Cloud knew, then, what always startled him so much in his dreams that he woke up without remembering their end. This man looked exactly like him.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncorrected chapter...

“I thought you said you weren’t blood related?” were Zack’s first words.

Then:

“No, wait, forget that. What’s the guy doing in a Mako crystal? In a place like _that_?”

“Hum,” was Angeal’s only reaction, but his eyebrows had shot up.

Sephiroth’s expression didn’t betray anything, but the gaze he was setting on the crystal at the centre of the lake was intense.

As for Cloud, his thoughts were a complete mess. Looking closer, he could see the man in the crystal was not really his twin. For a start, since he was naked, it was easy to see his muscles were more defined than Cloud’s own. They had the same kind of lean, almost delicate constitution, but that one could definitely pack a punch. His face looked older, too, and sterner, even in unconsciousness.

Cloud felt his breath catch as a thought came to him: that man could have been his brother.

Overjoyed, he made as if to run down, but a gloved hand caught his collar.

“Don’t be foolish, Strife.”

“But, sir!...”

“You cannot touch raw Mako, it would poison you,” Sephiroth asserted mercilessly.

“He is right, Spike. Hey! Don’t get yourself ill, okay? There has got to be an easier way to get him out of there.”

“For now, we should check the rest of this place,” Sephiroth said. “Angeal, take the left, I’ll take the right. Zack, Strife, guard the entrance.”

“You got it!” Zack exclaimed enthusiastically, with a few squats thrown in there.

Angeal simply nodded and left to inspect his part of the castle. Zack leaned against a wall, and Cloud’s eyes switched from him to the lake. He wanted nothing more than to get a closer look at that man who was, under all probability, the brother he had been so worried for. Zack caught the look and, checking that Sephiroth was out of sight, he winked at Cloud and motioned him forward.

“Don’t go too far,” he mouthed.

Cloud beamed at him; he didn’t have to be told twice! He hurried down a set of stairs to the edge of the lake, heart beating hard against his ribs. From down there, the sight was even more surreal. The crystal loomed over the water, rising straight up to a height of more than two men. His look-alike was suspended upright, limbs lying by his sides, chin resting against his chest. Cloud could see the faint preoccupied frown on his face. If he had tried to imagine what Rain would look like, would he have come up with anything different?

Before he realized it, Sephiroth was by his side. He jumped guiltily, having not even heard him approach. The SOLDIER didn’t seem angry at his disobedience, though. Rather, he was once more considering the crystal with a pensive gaze.

“Nothing,” Angeal said. “And no one. Looks like we are alone here.”

Sephiroth nodded without looking at him, then said as if it was perfectly natural:

“I’m going in.”

And thus saying, he took a step in the water.

“Whoa, hey, man!” Zack yelled, joining them at a jog.

Angeal stopped him with an extended arm. Sephiroth strode determinedly through the lake, and before long the water reached the tip of his hair, then swallowed his thigh-high boots. He was waist-deep when he came in reach of the crystal. Behind him, his hair floated like a banner on the surface.

Cloud balled his fists when he stopped there. What now? Sephiroth drew Masamune and examined the crystal. He reached out to test it with a gloved hand. Maybe he was considering cutting it open. He didn’t have the time to, though.

Just as his hand came in contact with the Mako, an ominous rumbling suddenly filled the place. The ground started to shake under their surprised feet and nearly threw them down. They raised their heads to see hairline cracks begin to appear on the catwalks and the turrets’ walls.

“Time to get out of there!” Zack said, barely keeping Cloud on his feet.

“No! Rain!...”

“Sephiroth, come on!” Angeal screamed over the roar of shifting earth.

Sephiroth hadn’t moved. The green crystal itself had begun to fracture, cracks shooting upwards from its base and chipping at the structure surrounding the stranger’s legs.

“Go ahead!” he shouted back. “I’ll be right behind you!”

“But…!” Zack said, hesitant.

Sephiroth turned to look at Cloud over his shoulder.

“Go, Strife! I’ll take care of it!”

There was no one else he would have so readily believed in these circumstances. Sephiroth’s green eyes reflected nothing but determination. Cloud nodded sternly, heart in his throat, then took Zack by the arm and made a run for it.

Sephiroth saw Angeal go with a last worried look for him. He turned back, watching the cracks reach Rain’s neck. The man had yet to show any sign of life. The water was sloshing around Sephiroth’s legs, its mad currents trying to bring him to his knees. He sheathed Masamune and squared himself on his feet, ready to pounce.

Finally, the crystal gave way to a million shards of green glass. Rain collapsed, and Sephiroth barely managed to catch him before he slipped underwater. He lifted him in his arms and started on the way back, wading through the lake while whole chunks of the castle detached themselves and rained around him. He hunched over the unconscious man, slit pupils burning with will. He had not made it this far, so close to his only lead, to lose everything now.

He surged from the water and ran for the stairs out. He had nearly made it when he had to jump aside to evade the fall of a huge piece of a wall. The ground shook even more at the impact and he lost a precious second trying to regain his footing. His head snapped up. Another boulder was falling right on him.

Heart pounding, he threw himself forward, all the while knowing it was too late. The block slammed on his legs, pinning him to the ground and dragging a cry from his throat. Rain rolled a few meters forward and lay limp on the first step of the stairs.

Sephiroth twisted around and pressed a hand against the stone, measuring its weight. He groaned when it barely shifted under his strength, grinding his legs along the way. His breath came in short gasps. It was no use; the angle was just too awkward. He brought Masamune’s hilt to his eyes, but he already knew he didn’t have any Earth Materia on him. Another hunk of stone exploded near his elbow and he barely protected his face from the shards.

He raised his head, and his breath caught when he met Mako blue eyes. Weight supported by his forearms, Rain was coolly considering him. His face held no warmth, and Sephiroth remembered Strife saying his brother had no lost love for him. He damned his luck. He was at the mercy of this man.

Despite seemingly being made of pure light, the stairs began to crack under Rain. The man looked at it, his face betraying nothing. His gaze switched back to Sephiroth, then to the crumbling castle. His features creased with a faint frown.

Was he even realizing the danger they were in? If they didn’t get killed in the collapse, they would get stuck down here if the stairs were destroyed. Rain certainly didn’t look as alarmed as a civilian should have been. Were these Mako eyes really the consequence of Mako poisoning? Then again, Sephiroth knew all SOLDIERs by both face and name and Rain was not one of them. But the nimble way he leapt to his feet certainly didn’t betray Mako poisoning either.

Rain stumbled and his frown became more pronounced, as if he had just realized something upsetting.

The light the surrounding walls had been providing to the cave was fading more and more. What irony it would be if Sephiroth were to die here, killed by a collapsing fairytale castle… His keen ears caught the pattering of bare feet under the racket around him and he spotted Rain suddenly at his side. He tensed, but the man was already ramming a shoulder against the boulder crushing his legs. Despite its weight, the stone lost no time moving. Sephiroth gritted his teeth against the pain, surprised and grateful.

He tried to get to his feet. One of his legs had somehow escaped most of the weight, and though the knee heavily protested, he still got it to mostly obey; the other one, though, felt like it had been completely crushed. Rain was instantly at his wounded side, sliding under his arm. Sephiroth allowed himself to be lifted upright and brought to the stairs.

Climbing to the surface was a dangerous affair with the steps collapsing nearly quicker than they were taking them. Sephiroth strained himself trying not to slow them down, the pain in his bad leg so blinding he felt he might pass out.

And yet, when they finally reached the exit, no solace was to be found. The shell house was collapsing around them. They found the door, skirted the sloshing pond and exited the grove of half uprooted white trees. Outside, the whole city was shaking. Sephiroth stared in disbelief at the crumbling walls and the cracks appearing in the streets. Angeal, Zack and Strife were nowhere to be seen, hopefully on their way to a safe place out of town. Rain let out an impatient puff of breath.

“That’s a bit too much, don’t you think?” he said to someone invisible.

He was talking softly enough that if it hadn’t been for his exceptional hearing, Sephiroth wouldn’t have heard him above the groans and roars of the shifting earth. The man looked pale. It couldn’t have been healthy for him to be moving so soon after getting out of the crystal.

The ground cracked beneath their feet and Rain swore under his breath, his stumble nearly sending them both down. Before Sephiroth could react, Rain pushed a shoulder in his stomach and he was lifted off his feet, head hanging around the backside of a man that was smaller than him; not to mention very naked.

“I really don’t think…” Sephiroth started, suffocated by Rain’s impudence.

“Mind the hair,” the man groaned.

Sephiroth barely had the time to wrap the full length of his hair around his arm. Rain was already moving, and if his first steps were hesitant, before long he was running along the wrecked streets at a speed that Sephiroth himself wouldn’t have turned his nose at. Eyebrows rising in appreciation, he tried not to stare at the man’s backside as he drove them forward, jumping from chunks of ground rising under his feet to fallen walls without any apparent difficulty.

Before long, Sephiroth caught a glimpse of the outskirts of the city. He also began to notice that Rain’s breathing belied the ease with which he moved. His bare skin was beginning to shine with a layer of sweat.

With a roar that could have heralded the end of the world, Sephiroth felt his stomach take flight as the floor dropped under Rain’s feet. Rain grunted and gave one last mighty push; the jump carried them through the city’s limits and up to the very edge of the forest. They collapsed to the ground in a tangle of limbs and Sephiroth barely swallowed a scream of pain as the harsh landing jostled his leg.

No one would have heard him anyway; the noise of the city sinking in the ground was deafening. Sephiroth could only stare as the entire town slid down in its newly made crater, until even the tips of what few houses remained standing couldn’t be seen anymore above the cliffs that now surrounded it like a protective barrier.

When the shaking finally stopped and the rumble died down, Sephiroth took a look at his companion. He was not surprised to find Rain had lost consciousness. Sighing, the SOLDIER manoeuvred his leg in a less agonizing position and shed his coat. He was laying it on Rain when his PHS began to ring from its pocket.

The caller ID indicated Strife. He had asked that everyone refrain from using their Shinra-issued PHS, and Strife was the only one of them who still had the old and decrepit phone he had bought himself before becoming a regular in the army. He had mentioned he had brought it with him because Rain would know the number by heart.

“Yes,” Sephiroth answered briskly.

“Sephiroth,” Angeal breathed. “Thank Gaia, you’re alive! Where are you?”

With the town completely devastated, it was impossible to tell how far they were from the place Sephiroth and his companions had first entered the city. He looked at the sky.

“North-east from the wreckage, at the edge of the trees. You’ll have to come get us. Tell our friend his brother is alive and with me.”

Not “fine”. Rain did not look fine. Angeal certainly caught the nuance, but he said nothing about it.

“We’ll be there.”

The line went dead and Sephiroth frowned at his PHS. There was a very high probability this call had been noticed. They would have to leave this place quickly and buy new phones soon, before it became too much of an inconvenience.

 

* * *

 

Rain looked better, now. Kneeling at his brother’s side, Cloud once more put a hand on Rain’s forehead. Still no fever. That probably meant he would wake up soon, right?

They had wrapped him in as many blankets as they could spare and settled him beside the fire. The only wounds on him had been the numerous cuts and bruises on his feet from his barefooted run through the collapsing city, and Cloud had already cleaned and bandaged them. He didn’t seem ill, either, so there was really nothing more he could do.

Cloud shivered. They had gone back as far south as they could afford before camping for the night, but the winter was already settling in on the Northern Continent. It was not a nice weather to sleep outside in, but Sephiroth and Angeal had deemed it too risky to stay at an inn when they could have caught Shinra’s attention. Luckily, they had found this cave where they were at least safe from the wind.

A mug of something hot appeared before his eyes. Cloud took it and smiled at Zack.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t worry, Spike. I’m sure he’ll wake up in no time at all!”

Zack leaned closer to him and mock-whispered:

“At least he’d better, before Sephiroth shakes him awake himself!”

Sephiroth glared at him from his position against the wall. One of his legs was completely encased between splits and his other knee disappeared under bandages. He was unable to walk without help and it obviously set him on edge, so Cloud tried to swallow his nervous smile back.

“Zack has a point,” Angeal actually chuckled, coming in with a load of wood for the fire. “Stop glaring at poor Rain, Sephiroth, it won’t make him wake up any faster.”

“You didn’t see what I saw,” Sephiroth insisted.

“So you have said. And I _am_ as curious as you are to learn about the civilian who saved the life of the First amongst the Firsts.”

Sephiroth didn’t react to the friendly teasing, only frowning more.

“This man is no civilian,” he said. “And I’d very much like to know why you never deemed it necessary to mention this, Strife.”

Cloud’s head snapped up.

“Sir?” he asked, surprised.

“Sephiroth,” Angeal stepped in, “Mako overload has been known to —”

“He is displaying none of the symptoms of Mako poisoning. He was perfectly coherent and totally aware of his exceptional physical abilities, which rule out the hypothesis of a temporary increase in speed and strength.”

“Are you sure you are unbiased in this?”

“What do you mean?”

Cloud didn’t like Sephiroth’s abrupt tone of voice. His eyes had taken a steely hint that scared him a little.

“I don’t know, Sephiroth. You tell me. I understand Rain is important for your goals, but aren’t you putting too much on his shoulders?”

Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed.

“I know what I saw. Strife.”

“S-sir!”

“What _is_ your brother’s line of occupation?”

Those slit pupils focused on him and Cloud nearly swallowed his tongue. Sephiroth had never looked so menacing to him. He had no idea what to say.

A rustle of blankets and a sigh prevented him from panicking.

“Sto’ it,” a very hoarse voice said.

Rain raised on an elbow. His hair was more dishevelled than ever and his eyes were half-mast, but he was glaring at Sephiroth. He made to sit, but instantly fell flat on his back.

“Rain!” Cloud cried, reaching for him in a panic. “What is it? Are you in pain? Are you ill? What do you need?”

Rain looked dazedly at the cave’s ceiling.

“’m fine. ‘ot all there yet. ‘ive me a m’nute.”

Zack curiously leaned over.

“Oh man. That’s Mako eyes alright. You sure the guy isn’t poisoned?”

Although the question was directed at Angeal and Sephiroth, Rain hissed:

“’m fine!”

He was closing and opening his fist, as if testing the waters. Cloud sneaked a look at Sephiroth. The SOLDIER had leaned back and the aggressiveness was gone from his body language. He was merely observing, face unreadable.

Rain propped himself up again and shook his head, furiously blinking, as if trying to move his brain in a more comfortable position. Cloud realized what was happening and struck his forehead, laughing in relief.

“Oh! You’re just rusty!”

It seemed so obvious now. Of course it would be strange to suddenly have a body back after ten years in someone else’s head, unable to even move a finger! Sephiroth had said he had carried him outside the city, but that must have been an adrenaline rush!

All three SOLDIERs in the cave gave him strange looks, but Rain just smiled. He had found the muscles of his mouth back, and after a second, he managed to focus his eyes on Cloud’s face.

“Hey.”

Cloud felt tears come to his eyes.

“Hey,” he said, bravely trying to smile back.

He helped him sit, then hugged the living daylights out of him.

“You scared me,” he breathed, face squashed against his brother’s shoulder.

Rain put a hand on his back.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I was as surprised as you, Cloud. If I had had any hint of what was going on, any at all, I would have warned you, but it was so sudden… I probably panicked just as much as you did.”

Cloud snorted at that.

“Liar, you never panic.”

“I did this time. I am no Superman, you know.”

Rain was casting a curious eye to Cloud’s spare clothes in which they had dressed him.

“Sorry, these are a little small,” Cloud apologized.

“Any of _our_ clothes would have been way too big on you, though,” Zack said, happily doing some squats. “Must run in the family!”

Rain stared, unimpressed, at the SOLDIER’s sunny smile.

“Smooth, Zack,” Cloud teased.

“What? Come on, you two can’t not be related! Just look in a mirror! Right, Rain?”

“Don’t harass the poor man, Zack,” Angeal reprimanded. “Does he even know who you are?”

Zack hit his forehead with his palm.

“Oh man, that’s right! I’m Zack, Zack Fair! Nice to meet ya.”

He enthusiastically stuck his hand under Rain’s nose. Rain just stared back, but there was a faint, nearly fond smile on his face.

“I do know who you are. All of you.”

He turned back to Cloud.

“You should tell them the truth. About this.”

He pointed to his head. Cloud felt his eyes widen.

“Y-you sure?”

“Some people need to learn not to look at you for answers.”

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees. Zack and Angeal’s eyebrows rose while Cloud ducked his head, cheeks burning.

A cold smile stretched Sephiroth’s lips.

“I don’t claim to know why you dislike me so much, but you are quite the brave man.”

“Am I?” Rain answered in a monotone.

He threw his blankets back and warily tried to get up.

“Er… So, what truth are we talking about?” Zack barged in, anxious to dispel the heavy mood.

Cloud stared up at Rain, lost. Could he really tell them? He had gotten so used to being the only one knowing about this… He didn’t even know where to begin, let alone where to end. Surely Rain didn’t want them to know he was from the future?

Rain caught his eyes and smiled at him.

“Start at your beginning.”

His beginning. His story it was, then.

“Right,” he breathed.

He was nearly as nervous as the day of the SOLDIER exam. Hopefully, it would go more smoothly. Rain sat back down next to him, close enough that their knees were touching. The contact gave him courage.

“Well, it all started when I was about six years old and I began telling my mom about the invisible friend talking in my head… I guess it would have been natural, you know, just a kid’s imagination, if it had actually faded with time. But Rain stayed.”

Zack gaped. Both Angeal and Sephiroth’s eyes had widened.

“Don’t interrupt,” Rain snapped before any of the SOLDIERs could say a word.

Zack’s mouth closed and he dropped to the ground, the picture of attentiveness. Cloud smiled, grateful.

“Rain also knew a lot of things there was no way I could ever have known, about plants, animals, even monsters. Even when my mom began to worry I was getting too old for this, there was no doubt in my mind that Rain was his own person, and just as real as you and me. But it was beginning to be troublesome for me, so Rain suggested I stop telling anyone about him. It was easier this way.”

Cloud’s eyes dropped to his shoes.

“All this time, I had never really wondered about why Rain was there or where he was coming from. It just didn’t mean anything to me. That’s why when he reacted so suddenly during that mission in Modeoheim… Well, I was a bit lost.”

“You are the one who stopped me?” Angeal asked suddenly, eyes intense.

Thankfully, Rain didn’t react badly to the interruption.

“Cloud was relaying my words. I could never use his body, but the gist of what he said came from me.”

He sent a grateful smile at Cloud, who was quickly learning his brother’s eyes were much most expressive than his mouth. Cloud smiled back, genuinely happy to have him by his side. It made the black hole at the back of his mind a little less cold and lonely.

Angeal blinked.

“Then I guess my debt toward you is more important than what I had first fathomed.”

But Zack looked as confused as he did and he had no qualms expressing it:

“Wasn’t Cloud going on about Sephiroth at the time, though? I thought you didn’t like him?”

“What?” Sephiroth asked, frowning.

Apparently, he hadn’t heard this part of the story.

“No matter,” he added immediately, turning back to Rain. “What I would rather know is why Strife would have had trouble contacting you about Angeal’s ailment if you were, as he said, “in his head”.”

Cloud felt insulted that the question hadn’t been aimed at him, especially since he was basically being called a liar. Rain stared back at Sephiroth, apparently unimpressed, but the enmity between them was palpable.

“Remember I was an extra soul in a body that wasn’t mine. Whether it weakened me or Cloud’s body couldn’t support two minds at once for too long, I was very often unconscious.”

“Which means he slept a lot,” Cloud supplied abruptly. “Like “six days per week” a lot, and I could never wake him up when he did that. You are all damn lucky he was here for Modeoheim at all.”

He had crossed his arms and a very annoyed expression had found its way on his face. They _were_ lucky Rain had intervened, and he was sick of them doubting his brother.

Zack laughed.

“Hey, relax Spike. _Some_ of us might not, but I do believe you two! It explains plenty of things after all.”

He started counting of his fingers.

“How you knew so many things in Modeoheim when you had barely heard of Angeal before; the way you zoned out while we were talking to Angeal in that alley; why you could never tell us how Rain had disappeared; why your dreams led us straight to him; and I suppose with how weird it was that Rain was in your head in the first place, it somehow fits in with how he could even have disappeared from Midgar to reappear on the Northern Continent, butt-naked and in a Mako crystal of all places.”

“In a castle in the middle of a sleeping forest that had to be awaken by a harp,” Angeal added with a straight face.

“That too.”

Rain was scowling.

“I didn’t ask for my life to be so ridiculous,” he murmured.

Cloud giggled and nudged him with a shoulder.

“The harp thing really threw me, you know.”

“Not my fault. I don’t write the stupid rules.”

“Well, how did you become an “extra soul” in the first place?” Zack asked, eagerly leaning forward.

Rain’s eyes wandered in the cave’s shadows.

“Who knows…”

“Oh, come on!” Zack cried in dismay, then, pleading: “Cloud?”

But Cloud had learned Rain’s will. He firmly shook his head.

“I gave you my story. That’s Rain’s, so ask him. Besides, he barely told me anything.”

“You can’t seriously stop the explanations here,” Angeal cut in, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

“Why not?” Rain answered. “While I thank you for getting me out of the crystal, it’s really none of your business. Let’s just say we are even and leave it at that.”

“Ah…”

Cloud tugged at his shirt, embarrassed.

“Rain… Zack, Sephiroth and I had to leave Shinra when you disappeared. We were afraid Shinra had you since you know so many corporation secrets.”

Rain looked thrown.

“Had me? How?”

Cloud ducked his head.

“Well, now it sounds ridiculous…” he muttered. “It’s just you were always going on about how dangerous Shinra is, so I thought…”

Rain looked sheepish.

“It’s alright, I get it. You had no idea of what had happened, after all.”

He was trying to be reassuring, but he was obviously troubled.

“So. Shinra has no SOLDIER First left.”

“Yeah,” Zack said, worried. “I had been wondering about that. Shinra has been trying to cover up for our defection, sure, but someone is bound to notice. What if these AVALANCHE guys decide now is a good time to attack?”

Sephiroth didn’t look very concerned.

“They’ll send Turks to deal with it and handpick a couple of SOLDIER Seconds to promote. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Is that kind of attitude really alright?” Angeal sighed. “I don’t particularly like Shinra, but it’s the only entity granting stability to the people right now. We don’t need a civil war.”

“It’s too late to have second thoughts. No matter what kind of situation the company is in, do you really think they’d welcome traitors back with open arms? And frankly, I could care less about Shinra right now.”

As he was saying that, Sephiroth’s eyes sought Rain. The man had gotten to his feet and stood at the cave’s mouth, his back turned to them, obviously deep in thought.

An uneasy silence befell them.

“We should go to sleep,” Zack suggested. “I don’t know about you, but I’m dead tired! Might as well talk about all of this in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Angeal approved. “I’ll take first watch…”

“Uh,” Cloud timidly interrupted. “If it’s nothing, I’d rather take it. I’d like to talk a bit with Rain.”

Rain had turned back to them and he nodded.

“I just woke up anyway. I won’t be going to sleep right now.”

“Very well, then,” Angeal shrugged.

The SOLDIERs moved to settle down for the night while Cloud joined his brother at the mouth of the cave. After a short conversation, they went out and sat a small distance from the camp.

“Here should be fine,” Rain said.

“Brr, you sure? It’s cold here.”

Rain glanced apologetically at him.

“Sorry, but I’d rather no one hear us. The wind will cover our voices if we speak softly.”

Cloud straightened at that.

“Is something wrong?”

Rain’s pensive eyes wandered in the night around them.

“I can’t stay, Cloud.”

Blunt as always. Cloud stayed silent a few seconds, winded by his astonishment.

“W-why?” he blurted. “Rain…!”

His brother slid a worried glance to the cave where the three SOLDIERs had laid down. Cloud let his voice die. Rain whispered:

“You know where I came from and why I am… here… now. Whatever. There are things I need to do, and I can’t bring Angeal or Sephiroth with me. I won’t take that risk.”

“… Does it have anything to do with that thing, the source of the J cells?”

Rain stayed silent, which was an answer in itself.

“Then I’ll come with you! I’ll help! Zack can stay with them and—”

“No Cloud. It’s too dangerous.”

Cloud opened his mouth to argue but found nothing to say. He was terrified of losing his brother just when he had found him again. Rain’s eyes softened.

“Don’t be mistaken. I know what you are capable of, more than anyone. I’m serious when I say it will be very dangerous. And I also know,” he added, speaking over his objections, “that you want to come all the same, but I won’t allow it. Besides, I need you to keep an eye on Sephiroth. Now that he has actually left Shinra, I’d feel uneasy if he were to wander around without me having any idea of where he went. You are the only one who can watch him for me.”

That was a valid argument, Cloud knew. With the way Rain behaved around Sephiroth, there was no way it was just a bone thrown at Cloud to make him stay put. The SOLDIER genuinely made his brother nervous.

“But… does that mean we’ll keep in contact?”

“Of course. You still have that old junk of a phone, right?”

Cloud brandished it. He had known taking it along would be useful! Rain smiled.

“Then I’ll be in touch. Not immediately, of course, I’ll need to get a phone of my own.”

“But you have no money!” Cloud realized. “Ah, and no weapon, too! And… uh, no shoes.”

They both lowered their eyes to Rain’s bandaged feet. There was no helping it, Cloud had no spare shoes.

“When do you leave?”

Cloud was holding his breath, but somehow, he already knew the answer.

“… Now.”

“So soon? But what if you end up having some sort of after-effect from the crystal? What if…”

He cut himself off, sighing. He already knew this battle was lost. He suddenly bent down and tugged at his Shinra-issued boots, thrusting them at Rain.

“Here.”

“Cloud…”

“If it’s that way, you’ll need them more than me. Besides, the others will know I helped you. We’re brothers, after all.”

Rain smiled at him and put the shoes on. Like Cloud’s clothes, they fit well enough. It was almost scary how physically alike they were.

“Also, money. Take everything you need from my account. You remember the code, right?”

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Of course I do. The sooner you get a phone, the sooner you can call me! And besides, I wouldn’t feel safe using my account right now. Is it possible Shinra can watch those?”

“Very possible,” Rain conceded. “All right, this can work our way. I’ll take as much as I can in one shot, and they’ll come after me instead of you. Since I’ll be travelling alone, I’ll be harder to find and the four of you can move around more freely.”

“If you think it’s alright…”

Rain put a hand on his shoulder and smiled.

“It’ll work out, I promise. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ll do my best to make it short.”

They hugged and, for a short while, Cloud revelled in the warmth and solidness of his brother’s strong frame. They moved apart, and Rain sneaked a glance to the cave. He stilled and Cloud followed his gaze. Two cat-like eyes were staring at them. Even with the distance and the fire between Sephiroth and them, Cloud shivered.

“Sorry,” Rain breathed, turning his back to the SOLDIER.

Cloud wondered if he was trying to prevent him from reading his lips. Could Sephiroth do that? He wouldn’t put it past him.

“It looks like I am throwing you to the wolves. Don’t hesitate to tell them I’ll be contacting you soon. Make sure you stay close to Zack.”

“Sephiroth won’t do anything to me, Rain,” he said, with less assurance than he would’ve a few months ago.

He had seen how obsessive Sephiroth could get. Rain’s departure would without a doubt displease him, _a lot_. Rain rose, and Cloud could only cling to his hand. He could hardly believe they were already going to part. Rain looked softly at him.

“I’ll see you soon,” he promised.

Then he was gone, running so fast the night seemed to swallow him in mere seconds.

Cloud didn’t see Sephiroth shoot to his elbows, livid, and shake Angeal awake. Maybe Sephiroth would have had a chance to catch up to Rain if he hadn’t been injured, but as it was, it was already too late anyway.

Cloud was more focused on the sudden thought that had come to him as he had been watching that figure that looked so much like him disappear, wearing both his clothes and his shoes. If Rain came from the future, then… could it be that the reason they were so much alike…


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncorrected chapter...

If his legs would have allowed it, Sephiroth would no doubt have been pacing. He had to make do with glaring at the wall and grinding his teeth, stubbornly not looking at Cloud. The ex-trooper was grateful. He didn’t want _that_ anger aimed at him.

The night had been difficult enough to get through, with everyone angry or sad or disturbed. A heavy silence weighed down on the four men. Zack kept fidgeting uncomfortably, eyes sliding between his three companions, seeming to sense it wasn’t his place to break the mood. Cloud wasn’t as upset to be the target of every disapproving glance as he’d usually have been. He was at peace with his decisions, and focused more on his own sadness and on that unsettling idea that wouldn’t leave him alone.

Finally, it was Angeal who broke the silence.

“So,” he said when everyone had had enough of eating or pretending to eat breakfast. “Now that we have all settled down a bit. Would you mind explaining yourself, Strife?”

Cloud raised his head and looked at the three SOLDIERs. Zack made a brave attempt to smile at him, Angeal stared back impassively, and Sephiroth was now glaring at a point just above his shoulder.

It was exactly this kind of attitude that made Rain wary, Cloud realized. Sephiroth was so greedy for information he was losing all sense of restraint. It wasn’t fair that Cloud had to choose between the two role models of his life just because Sephiroth felt the need to throw some tantrums!

“Oh, get a grip, for Gaia’s sake!” he all but shouted at his idol.

Sephiroth looked nothing short of astonished.

“Not everyone is at your beck and call! Rain had a life, before he ended up spending years trapped in my head. He had things to do, things he couldn’t drag all of us around for. It’s because of your attitude that he had to leave in the middle of the night like a thief!”

Sephiroth’s raised eyebrows slid down into a frown.

“Strife—” he began sternly.

“You think I was happy to see him go so soon? I spent nearly my whole life with my brother. You can’t even begin to understand how empty my head feels like now that he is no longer there!” Cloud ranted. “And after everything, when I finally met with him again, he had to leave… But I respect that, and the least you could do is to respect it too!”

Zack threw a protective arm around his shoulders, and he realized he was shaking.

“Hey, Cloud has a point; Rain owed us nothing. I mean, sure, we helped Cloud get him out of that weird-ass city. But before that, he had still saved Angeal without ever asking for anything in return!”

“Quite,” Angeal sighed. “And there is really no need to be so glum, Sephiroth. You know Rain has to have left Cloud here with us on purpose. He’ll come back, there’s no doubt about it.”

Although he looked in no way as furious as before, there was still a weight on Sephiroth’s brow. His eyes slid to Cloud’s.

“Is that for certain?”

Cloud nodded with absolute conviction.

“Yeah; he promised. And he said he’d be in touch, too. As soon as he can.”

Sephiroth sighed and nodded. He looked frustrated, but most of his control was back.

“Huh,” Zack said.

He seemed in a much better mood now that the air had cleared. He let go of Cloud and stretched his arms above his head.

“Well. What do we do, now? We can’t just wait for a sign from this guy. How about we try and go back to Midgar?”

“Going out of the Northern Continent right now could be very risky,” Angeal argued. “Don’t forget they probably noticed our phone call in that city. They’ll be watching the boats.”

“Ah,” Cloud remembered. “Yeah, I should probably mention this: Rain said he’d try to get the Turks’ attention away from us, since he’ll be harder to target.”

“Be that as it may, I’d rather have nothing to do with Midgar before quite a while has passed,” Sephiroth said unexpectedly. “We have no reason to hurry there now that we know Rain was never a prisoner of Shinra. I realize you have left important friends behind, Zack, but going back to them would only put them in danger.”

Zack hung his head and sighed.

“Yeah, I know. Guess Midgar is out, then.”

Cloud felt very guilty. It was because of him that Zack had had to leave his girlfriend and all his other friends behind, and all for his unwarranted concerns, too. He nudged him with his shoulder.

“Sorry, Zack.”

His friend smiled and half-hugged him.

“’T’s okay, little guy. Anyway, it might be for the best. Shinra was getting iffier and iffier.”

He was just saying that to comfort him, Cloud knew. As “iffy” as Shinra was, Zack had been determined to make the best of what he had been given there, to do his job, to help people to the best of his ability. And now he would be stuck being a fugitive for the rest of his life. Cloud could maybe find a new place for himself, somewhere, somehow, but there was no way any of the SOLDIERs could go unnoticed long enough for that. As if he was reading his thoughts, Angeal smiled to him.

“Let’s take it all one step at a time.”

Cloud smiled back and nodded, touched. Angeal seemed much more amiable with him since they had found Rain, he had even used his first name earlier. The ex-SOLDIER had already had quite some time to get used to the idea of being a fugitive himself; coupled with Sephiroth’s apparently unruffled attitude, it made all of this seem a bit less daunting.

“Yeah. Okay.”

 

* * *

 

The very next day, Cloud’s old PHS chimed from his pocket. They all stopped what they were doing while Cloud eagerly opened his phone.

“It’s an email from Rain,” he said happily. “ ‘Hey little brother, I’m writing this from one of these crappy public terminals in inns. I did as we discussed and our friends are hot on my tail. Will buy a phone as soon as I throw them off. Thought all of you might get bored in the meantime, so I suggest you head to the place your best friend got his Bahamut summon and dig around. See you soon, Rain.’ ”

“Woohoo, a secret message!” Zack deadpanned. “I am worth jack-shit at deciphering those. So, who is your best friend, Spike?”

“… That’d be you, Zack.”

Like he was friends with a lot of people who possessed a Materia as strong as a Bahamut summon. Zack’s face lit up.

“Oh yeah? Thanks, Cloud!” he said, flattered.

“So, where did you get a Bahamut summon, Puppy?” Angeal asked. “You certainly didn’t have it when I left Shinra.”

“Huh… Let me think…”

Zack started on some squats, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

“Huh… Oh yeah! Now I remember! It was Genesis’! He left it behind in… ah… in Banora.”

Angeal sobered at the mention of his destroyed hometown.

“I see.”

“Using his Materia so carelessly, that’s just like Genesis,” Sephiroth butted in with a scoff.

He was deliberately not looking at his forlorn friend.

“To Banora, then?” Cloud asked him, taking a leaf out of the SOLDIER’s book.

“As soon as we can find suitable means of transportation. Although I have to say I don’t particularly like your brother’s way of stringing us along.”

“He is doing his best, sir. I’m sure we’ll find something important there.”

“Hm.”

“Anyway,” Zack intervened, “Banora should be much nicer at this time of the year. I know _I_ am sick of the cold!”

“Well,” Angeal said, having gratefully taken the time they left him to pull himself together, “I am nearly done with that crutch for you, Sephiroth. Let’s get out of here as soon as it’s finished.”

 

* * *

 

Their car had disappeared by the time they had made it back from the Northern Continent, and Cloud had had to silence his guilt and steal another one. At least this one had no broken window since he had been able to take his time, and they had been able to ferry it to the Mideel island.

The trooper was leaning against the car’s door, utterly miserable. Zack was throwing him commiserating glances and trying to distract him with his usual babble, but Cloud had trouble paying attention to him.

Angeal was driving, and Sephiroth had had no choice but to retreat to the backseat so that his bad leg could lay straight. Cloud had willingly taken the seat next to him as he was the smallest of them all and could leave as much space as possible to his injured role model, but since Sephiroth sat nearly facing him and their legs occasionally brushed, he was very much distracted.

At least he was done wearing the man’s too big spare boots, that pair Sephiroth had used in his SOLDIER Second Class’ disguise. Those few days between Rain leaving and the moment when they had felt safe enough to stop at a town to get supplies had been embarrassing. It was in that very same shopping trip, though, that Sephiroth had somehow managed to acquire new phones for himself, Zack and Angeal. They were second-hand, but still serviceable. Cloud wondered how long it would take for Sephiroth to get Rain’s number out of him once his brother got a phone.

Eh. That made Sephiroth sound like an overzealous suitor. He tried hard not to snicker.

“Hey Cloud,” Zack said suddenly, catching his attention. “I was just thinking… How come Rain knew where I had gotten that Bahamut summon in the first place? I mean, I don’t remember ever telling you. Did I?”

“No idea,” Cloud groaned. “If you did, I can’t remember. But I don’t know why you’re surprised. Rain knows _a lot_ of things he shouldn’t, hadn’t you figured that out already?”

He was smirking. Zack kept silent a few seconds.

“Man, no offense Spike, but that guy is weird. Is he some sort of psychic, or an alien, or what?”

Cloud snorted. He actually had a very interesting theory as to why Rain would know so much about Zack’s life, but he wasn’t about to tell anyone that. Although he was nearly certain by now that he was right.

It had taken them about a week to get from the Northern Continent to Banora’s outskirts, and there had been no sign of Rain in that time. Frankly, Cloud was starting to get very worried. Should it take him so long to get rid of the Turks following him?

“What’s that?” Zack asked, leaning forward to peer through the windshield.

Night was falling, but in front of them, a strange green light was floating from the ground.

“We’re nearly there,” Angeal said.

Sephiroth said nothing, but by the way he briefly stretched his back, Cloud guessed he was impatient to escape the cramped space and uncomfortable position he was stuck in. For once, Cloud wasn’t the only one who had to suffer through car rides.

Within minutes, Angeal stopped the car. They all got out and silently gathered on the cliff overlooking Banora’s remains. Clumps of soil and rock now stood out from a background of gently glowing green light. Lone half-burned timbers and lopsided palm trees still clung to their islands of ground. The skeleton of the mill stood on a nearby hill like a forlorn sentry.

“Man, it looks so different now…” Zack said.

“The Lifestream,” Sephiroth breathed.

Angeal sighed.

“People used to say Banora’s soil was blessed by how close to the surface the Lifestream ran around here. I never thought it would take an air raid from Shinra to prove that theory.”

“Hey, look,” Cloud said.

He pointed to an area far away to their right. Above some steep hills, Mako green light shone as if emerging from a well, more intense than the glow from the destroyed village.

“Well, Rain said to dig around, right? Let’s go take a look,” Zack suggested.

They headed for the narrow path that took off in that direction. Zack and Angeal took the lead while Cloud stayed behind with Sephiroth, weapon in hand. The SOLDIER’s contracted jaw was the only sign that he was frustrated by the speed at which he was hobbling along.

They reached what was actually looking quite similar to a well: a circular crack in the ground from the depths of which the Lifestream gently shone. Not far from it, they found the opening of a tunnel.

“It’s too dark in there,” Sephiroth said. “I don’t like it.”

“Yeah. We should probably get some equipment before going down there,” Angeal suggested.

“What’s the closest town?” Zack asked. “Mideel, right?”

“I’ll go tomorrow,” Cloud immediately offered. “I need to charge my phone anyway.”

The old thing’s battery could barely go three days while unused and Cloud kept having to charge it at inns and hotels.

“Alright, Spike, you do that, and Angeal and I can see if there is anything else interesting around here. Sephiroth, uh…”

“Save it.”

The man sighed impatiently and tossed his head, sending a ripple through his long silver hair. Angeal shared a shrug and a small smile with Cloud and Zack.

“It’s settled, then. Let’s go back and set camp.”

 

* * *

 

It quickly became evident that Rain had had to be talking about the tunnel, as there was hardly anything else around Banora. They began exploring as soon as Cloud was back with supplies and discovered nothing short of a complete network of caves and tunnels.

The scenery in there was rather spectacular. Pale Mako crystals shot from everywhere, lighting everything and making their new flashlights nearly useless. Small waterfalls made sure half of the caves had anything from one to ten feet of water, but the topography was chaotic enough that it was possible for anyone but Sephiroth to stay on dry ground by jumping from rocks to platforms.

The first time they had had to leave Sephiroth behind, Cloud had been reluctant. He had quickly learned not to be when they had returned to find him mechanically destroying a group of Evilgoyles with Materia alone. He had even looked rather bored. When one of the monsters had managed to slip through his attacks, he had cut it down with a single strike of Masamune, not even moving his legs.

That had been rather awe-inspiring to Cloud, who had no hope of going anywhere alone in the underground. The place was swarming with powerful monsters and he was mostly stuck playing support for the three SOLDIERs.

Still, the monster hunting was rather welcome for their funds. Although Sephiroth had been well inspired in taking off from Midgar with quite a sum of money, their need for supplies and travels had made a sizeable dent in it.

On the second day, Cloud emerged from the tunnel to discover he had missed a call. He let out a cry of dismay, earning the attention of his three companions. Obviously, there was no reception down there. He should have thought of it!

He immediately dialled back, not even explaining himself to the others. Someone picked up.

“I got a phone,” were Rain’s first words.

Cloud laughed, relieved beyond words.

“About damn time! I was beginning to get seriously worried! What took you so long?”

“Sorry. I did my best, but I am still no Turk. Don’t worry though, I’ll get someone to help on that.”

Cloud’s curiosity peaked.

“Someone? What do you mean? You know someone who can help you even after… you know…”

He sneaked a glance at the three SOLDIERs who were obviously keeping an ear on the conversation. He meant Rain’s time travel, but they’d just assume he meant the years he spent trapped in his head.

“Yeah, sure. See, I won’t be alone, so don’t worry too much, okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Did you get started on what you meant to do?”

“Not yet, I lost time playing with these guys. I’m on my way now.”

“Right. By the way, we are at the place you asked us to go to. Any kind of hint on what we are looking for?”

“… Frankly, I’m not even sure it’s there yet. It might be too early. What did you find so far?”

“A whole bunch of caves infested with monsters. That’s what you wanted us to look into, right?”

“No idea.”

“What? Rain!” Cloud cried, appalled.

Although Angeal and Zack merely looked curious at his outburst, Sephiroth, who was walking at Cloud’s side, was staring right at the phone. Did that mean he could actually hear his brother?

Rain laughed softly.

“Sorry, I really don’t know. My memories are too fuzzy.”

Sephiroth was now frowning. Without a word, he reached a gloved hand out.

“Uh, I think Sephiroth wants to talk to you.”

“Of course he does.”

The SOLDIER looked very much unamused.

“… and I think he can hear you.”

“Of course he can,” Rain agreed.

Despite his uneasiness, Cloud had to stifle a laugh. Sephiroth looked so unimpressed he couldn’t help it.

“I’ll talk to you later, Cloud.”

“Yes!”

He handed the phone over. Sephiroth lost no time diving into business.

“Why would you direct us here with that kind of vague information? Are you purposefully sending us on a wild goose chase?”

Rain stayed silent a few seconds.

“I won’t deny I don’t really care whether you find something or not. Actually, no. I’d rather you find nothing.”

Sephiroth stopped in the middle of the path and took a slow breath to calm his temper. His patience had taken quite a beating, first from Rain’s disappearance and then from his wound. He did _not_ appreciate being led around.

“Frankly, I mostly sent you there so that you would not end up in my way, whether accidentally or not,” Rain carried on, although he had to be aware of Sephiroth’s anger. “That’s not to say there is nothing to find. I just don’t know if it came here yet.”

“And what, precisely, are we talking about?” Sephiroth growled.

“I’d rather not say anything if it’s too early. It’ll be a nasty shock as it is.”

“You are a very, very irritating man.”

Rain paused for a while.

“Somehow, it’s very satisfying to hear you say that,” he said.

Then he hung up.

 

* * *

 

It turned out there was no need to fret, as they found that “nasty shock” no later than the next day.

They emerged back in the sunlight, shaken to their very core. Zack, Angeal and Sephiroth were all pale, although probably for very different reasons. From the glint in his cat-like eyes, Cloud guessed Sephiroth was mostly furious.

Pre-empting what he was going to ask, Cloud called Rain.

“ _If I can’t answer the phone, I’m probably busy doing something Shinra won’t like. I’ll call you back later. Be safe,_ ” the answering machine blithely told him.

Cloud heard Sephiroth take a long and slow breath through his noise. He sneaked a look at the man he admired to find him pressing a gloved hand against his brow in pure aggravation.

“Sorry,” Cloud whispered.

Sephiroth turned his back to them and hobbled some distance away. He stopped in the middle of the path, letting the wind play with his hair.

“What are we gonna do?” Zack breathed. “Genesis… He was…”

Cloud didn’t blame his friend for not finding his words. They had all thought Genesis was dead, finally laying at peace in the Lifestream. Instead of what, the man was down there, more stark raving mad than ever before. If he hadn’t obviously still been suffering from his degradation and the wounds Zack had inflicted on him the last time they fought — six months ago! — it was clear they would have had to kill him.

But Genesis had tripped while trying to charge them, sank to his knees and not managed to get up, all the while screaming and ranting at them. Cloud had found it terrifying and _he_ hadn’t known the man before he left Shinra. For Sephiroth and Angeal, it had to have been a horrible vision.

But Sephiroth had been the one to snap them out of it, barking at them to get out of there. They had left and Sephiroth had snatched one of the seven strange Materia that had been resting on a pedestal before the room. The huge doors had immediately slid close, sealing Genesis and his incoherent insults inside.

“Well,” Angeal sighed. “At least we know what those two clones we killed this morning were doing here.”

Although his voice was calm enough, neither Cloud nor Zack could see his face.

“Taking care of him, right?” Cloud whispered. “He obviously can’t get food and the like on his own.”

They lapsed into silence.

“We can’t leave this place anymore,” Sephiroth said suddenly. “There might be other clones around, or a way for Genesis to open this door from the inside. We have to move our camp to the tunnel.”

They had explored enough of the caves to know there was only one way out. If they guarded it, Genesis would not be able to escape. It was a good plan; but then, what would they do? Cloud wanted to ask. He swallowed the question.

“Then Cloud and me will get everything from camp,” Zack suggested, his voice somewhat back to his usual confident one. “Right, Spike?”

Cloud nodded gratefully and followed him to the remains of Banora, leaving the two friends alone in a tense silence.

 

* * *

 

It’s only in the evening that Rain called back.

Since no one had been in the mood to explore more, Cloud had taken advantage of the afternoon to go back to Mideel and recharge his phone. He was now officially in charge of supplies for the group. He had told the locals he was in the area to make a living out of hunting monsters. Thankfully, the Mideel folks were an eccentric bunch and no one batted an eyelash at the high-level stuff he sold to the shopkeepers.

“I’ll put you on speaker,” he told Rain.

He pressed the correct button and inclined the phone towards the three SOLDIERs that sat with him around the fire. They were a subdued bunch, tonight.

“So, you found him,” were Rain’s first words.

Angeal sighed heavily. His closed eyes and painful frown betrayed his torment.

“What I want to know is… what are you playing at?”

“Playing? This is not a game. I assure you it doesn’t feel funny to me either.”

“Then why send us here?” Sephiroth growled.

He was keeping a tight rein on his emotions, but Cloud could still feel the anger boiling in him. Rain kept silent a few seconds.

“You deserved to know.”

There was really not much that could be answered to that. After some time, Rain sighed.

“I can’t stay on the phone for long. I’ll be busy for a while yet. Cloud?”

Cloud took back his phone and deactivated the speaker.

“Yeah?”

“I found that friend I told you about.”

“Oh.”

“He agreed to help me. I’ll be sure to introduce you two soon. After all, you tried to help me get to him, once upon a time.”

“I did?” he frowned. “… Oh. Oh!”

His eyes grew wide. Was Rain talking about that day he had asked him to get inside the Shinra Manor in Nibelheim? That was the only favour his brother had ever asked of him. But who the hell could he have found in the manor? The place had been deserted since before Cloud’s birth!

“Does that mean you are in—?”

“Hush. I’d rather they don’t know. But yes, I’m there. Don’t worry, I have been avoiding the villagers.”

Cloud tugged on his collar, gulping. Who knew what would happen if anybody saw someone looking so much like Cloud the looser wandering around the village? And his mother! He didn’t even want to think about her meeting Rain out of the blue.

Still… He sneaked a glance at his companions and, noticing Zack had turned the conversation to more pleasant subjects, quietly walked away from the fire.

“Ah… Do you think you could…”

“Hm?”

“If I sent you an email for someone, could you…”

“… write it and deposit it in their mailbox? Sure.”

He sighed, relieved.

“Thank you.”

“If you’ve got one for Tifa, I’ll do it too,” Rain teased.

“Wha… Rain!” he hissed in the mouthpiece, face flaming.

His brother gave a quiet laugh.

“Try and do it this evening. I’ll be very busy from tomorrow on. And don’t try to contact me before I send you a message saying it’s okay.”

“… It’s going to be dangerous, right? What you’re going to do?”

“Frankly? I don’t know. It could be done in a heartbeat. Shinra will notice and be very displeased, though. There is no helping that.”

“Okay…” he sighed. “Be careful, then.”

“You too.”

 

* * *

 

The next days went rather quietly.

Angeal took the habit of going down to bring Genesis food. Zack worried and often went with him to the door, while Sephiroth simply frowned and kept silent. When Cloud would follow Zack on some patrols to keep the population of monsters down, his friend would keep him updated.

“He behaves a little less like a crazy loon,” Zack panted, chugging down a potion Cloud had given him. “You know, less raving. His eyes still look mad, though. Mainly, he just stays far away from the door and watches Angeal and me until we leave. Sometimes he talks, complete nonsense and LOVELESS quotes; which are the same as far as I am concerned. I just don’t know, Spike. It’s not like we can kill him when he is like that.”

Cloud had his reserves. He wondered if Sephiroth wouldn’t be able to do it. After all, he had severed Angeal’s wings without hesitation, as soon as there had even been a possibility it could help. Then again, according to Zack he had also refused to be sent on the first mission to track down Angeal and Genesis when they had gone MIA, probably fearing he would have to kill them.

The SOLDIER was a complex man. It was even more difficult to understand his position on the matter when he never talked about Genesis, except to make sure he wouldn’t escape.

Finally, Rain contacted Cloud. Cloud had been on the way back from Mideel and lost no time pulling over.

“Is everything alright?” he eagerly asked.

“It’s done. I’m fine. My friend is fine,” Rain answered, unusually irritated. “But it still doesn’t exactly feel “alright” to me.”

Cloud heard a feminine voice in the background and nearly had a heart attack.

“Is it Cloud?”

“Wa-wa-wa-was that…?”

“I told you I was no Turk. So apparently, someone saw me posting one of your letters.”

“It is Cloud!” the voice said triumphantly, from a bit closer. “Give me that! I want to talk to him!”

“Tifa?” Cloud cried in dismay.

“She is very persistent.”

Before he could ask what that meant, there was an outburst of static and some loud ruffle of fabric.

“Cloud!” Tifa said, apparently now in possession of the phone. “Is that you, Cloud?”

“Tifa…”

“Oh, thank Gaia! I was beginning to think these guys were just creeps out to kidnap young girls.”

“No one asked you to come,” Cloud faintly heard Rain say.

“So, is that guy really your brother? I couldn’t believe it when I saw him! He looks so much like you! How come no one even knew you had a brother? I never heard your mom talk about him!”

“Tifa, wait! What are you doing with Rain?”

“Well, I had to find out who that weird guy who looked like you was, duh. At first I thought it was you, can you believe it? But then I thought, no, I don’t think SOLDIERs are supposed to look older than their real age. You know, you owe me some explanations.”

“What?” he weakly asked.

He was busy trying not to faint. Had he heard Rain right? Had Tifa actually gone with him?

“About why your brother just sabotaged the reactor. I thought you went to become a SOLDIER? And he looks like a SOLDIER, too. Although that guy with him just looks weird. So, how can your brother be a terrorist if he is Shinra? Not that I really like Shinra, but still. That’s just plain weird. That’s why I went with them, but your brother can be a real jerk; he won’t tell me anything.”

“… Tifa, where are you right now?”

“Well, in their car, obviously. They are hightailing it out of Nibelheim, outlaws that they are.”

“Wha… Tifa!” he exclaimed. “Why would you go with them if you knew they had done something illegal? Now you are going to be in trouble too!”

“I can always pretend they held me hostage or something. But I am not backing off without some explanations! Besides, I was getting bored. Half the kids our age left for the city; I thought I’d at least see what the hype was.”

“By carpooling with some shady guys without any proof that one of them was really my brother?”

“Oh, sod off. You know I can take care of myself. I used to wipe your ass at Zangan’s, remember?”

He wanted to argue some more, but he found himself out of words. Rain had actually sabotaged Nibelheim’s reactor. He would be chased by Shinra even more than he had already been. His friend was apparently very weird, and Tifa had managed to get dragged in the horrible mess that Cloud’s life had become! What else could go wrong?

“Cloud? Hey, don’t ignore me—”

“And that’s quite enough.”

Static again, through which he heard Tifa loudly protest, then Rain’s voice.

“Like I said; she is persistent.”

“Come on!” Cloud cried. “You are at least SOLDIER level! Couldn’t you have prevented her from coming?”

“Sure, except she looked very serious about giving Shinra every last information she had about us and what we did. Frankly, I can’t afford it.”

Cloud groaned, desperate.

“This is just… peachy… just great.”

Rain’s voice softened.

“I’m sorry, Cloud. I do what I can, but I am not infallible.”

“I know,” he sighed. “I know you’re doing your best. And I am the one who asked you to post the letters, so it’s mainly my fault. Did you really sabotage Nibelheim’s reactor?”

“Yes. Though that was more of a side-effect. With luck, Shinra will think that it was our real objective and the rest was just collateral damage.”

“What about the scientists who worked there?”

“Cloud.”

Rain’s voice was admonishing.

“They are unarmed, of course.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course they are. Sorry, I’m not thinking right.”

“It’s okay. We are on our way to join you. I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. See you then.”

He hung up to Tifa’s protest that she still wanted to talk to him. He gave a heavy sigh and his head dropped to the headrest. He couldn’t believe he would have to see Tifa soon on top of everything else. He still felt somewhat bad that he hadn’t managed to make SOLDIER despite the way he had nearly bragged before her, and she was already demanding answers about things he couldn’t talk about, things that weren’t his own secrets.

And then he’d have to explain Rain.

Oh boy.

 

* * *

 

That evening, when they all settled around the campfire for dinner, he had to warn his companions that Rain had called and would be joining them soon. He figured he had a little time left to figure out how to tell them he wouldn’t be coming alone.

It didn’t seem like the right time anyhow, he reasoned. Though Zack was happy that Cloud was going to be reunited with his brother, Angeal and Sephiroth barely reacted to the news. He would have thought Sephiroth, at least, would be more eager.

But just after dinner, Sephiroth came to him to ask for Rain’s phone number. Cloud’s eyebrows jumped to his hairline. He had expected that days ago. Since Sephiroth had said nothing until now, he had thought he’d be content to wait until Rain came back.

“Uh…” Cloud said.

Now that it was happening, he didn’t really know how to answer. Would Rain be offended if Sephiroth got his number? Then again, Rain was the one who wanted to keep an eye on the SOLDIER. That Sephiroth was still willing to talk to him was a good thing, right? He could hardly imagine the man plaguing his brother with phone calls until he got the information he so obviously wanted out of Rain.

“Okay,” he decided. “I’ll just send him an email so that he knows who is calling.”

“Of course,” Sephiroth answered, not batting an eyelash.

The email was sent, the number traded, and Sephiroth thanked him and hobbled away. Cloud could only stare after him, curious.

 

* * *

 

Sephiroth sat down on a rock near the mouth of the tunnel and leaned his crutch against his side. Drawing his PHS from his pocket, he allowed his gaze to wander in the starry sky.

The rings dragged on until he began to think Rain wouldn’t pick up. Then he did. A silence settled on the line.

“I appreciate that you agreed to speak with me.”

“I’m curious. If you wanted to ask for that kind of information on the phone, you’d have done it long ago.”

That kind of information. Once more, Rain made it obvious he was perfectly aware of what Sephiroth wanted from him, which could only mean he had these answers.

Sephiroth calmed his breathing and focused on the reason for his call.

“Genesis.”

“What about him?”

“What did you expect would happen if you sent us here?”

Rain stayed silent.

“Do you know what state he is in?” Sephiroth pressed on.

“Not precisely. Still degrading, I expect. Probably too weak to do any kind of damage to you lot.”

“Too weak to battle us and die with honour.”

Rain’s voice dropped.

“I wouldn’t have asked that of Angeal. I’m not that cruel.”

“What did you expect _me_ to do, then?”

“… I don’t know. What are you planning to do?”

The leather of Sephiroth’s glove creaked as he clenched his fist.

“Is this some kind of test?” he asked, voice tight.

“Is it?… Maybe. Mostly, like I said, I wanted you out of the way. Someone would have had to take care of him, sooner or later. If it allows me to better understand the kind of person you are, I guess it’s a bonus.”

For someone so secretive, Rain could be incredibly frank. Sephiroth raised his free hand to his brow.

“I don’t understand you at all.”

“I’d feel better if the reverse wasn’t also true.”

A hint of dry humour had slipped in that statement to disappear at once, as if Rain hadn’t premeditated it and wasn’t happy about it. If that man could be blunt, Sephiroth didn’t see why he should refrain.

“Can Genesis be healed?”

A brief silence.

“Probably.”

“Probably?” he repeated, narrowing his eyes in annoyance.

“Yeah. In some kind of universe, it would happen.”

“What kind of an answer is that? You are not making any sense,” he sighed.

He couldn’t even find it in himself to stay angry with that man. He was too much of an enigma.

“I mean I am sure there is a way, or maybe one chance in a million.”

“You don’t know how it can be done.”

“No. Just that it can be done.”

Which was incredibly helpful. He sighed again and dragged a hand through his hair, suddenly feeling very tired. This conversation was not going how he had hoped it would.

“… I could find someone.”

Rain’s voice was hesitant, nearly timid.

“Someone?”

“Someone who might help. Or not. I don’t like the idea of dragging them in that mess, but it’s the only way I can think of.”

“I see.”

There was another lull in the conversation.

“Would you be able to forgive him?” Rain asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“What are you asking?”

“Just that. I find it curious that you’d willingly look for a cure for Genesis. He left you both behind, then dragged Angeal down with him. Don’t you resent him?”

“I do. But if this goes on, Angeal will never stop mourning for him.”

“Hm. You’d do it for Angeal, then?”

“Is that a satisfactory answer?”

“… I guess.”

Sephiroth couldn’t help it. A slow rumble of a laugh dragged itself from the depths of his throat and morphed into a deep chuckle.

“I don’t think I have ever met anyone quite like you.”

Rain seemed thrown.

“… Oh,” he only answered.

“Will you bring that person?”

“I’ll try. If they refuse, I’m not insisting.”

“Very well. I can agree with that.”

“Then it’s a deal. Tell Cloud I’ll be away a few days more.”

Rain hung up. Sephiroth wondered if he should have thanked him.


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncorrected chapter...

Genesis’ stare on Angeal was eerily unrelenting. He didn’t even seem to be blinking. Cloud fidgeted, ill at ease.

He usually didn’t come down to Genesis’ chamber, but lately Sephiroth had taken to accompanying Angeal and Zack when they brought meals to their prisoner. Since Cloud found this sudden interest curious and he was a bit sick of staying alone when they went down, he had decided to come with them this time.

Besides, Sephiroth had gotten rid of his crutch that very morning, even though he was still limping, and despite everything Cloud was worried. Despite the liberal use of a Restore Materia, it said a lot about SOLDIER that the stubborn man could walk unaided not even three weeks after getting his knee nearly crushed to bits. Most people would have had to live with the consequences of such an injury for the rest of their lives.

Angeal was attempting small conversation with Genesis, who was only answering with sneers and cutting, barely coherent rebukes.

“Still better than before,” Zack commented in a whisper to Cloud.

They were standing with Sephiroth outside the doors, as Genesis reacted badly to more than one person coming in.

“D’you think he can heal?” Cloud breathed back.

Zack only shrugged, mouth bent in an uncertain grimace. Angeal got out, apparently unruffled, and Sephiroth pocketed the Materia that would keep the doors closed. Without a word, they all started on the way back.

This routine was beginning to wear on all of them. Could Genesis heal? Did they want him to? Were they helping, and should they? These questions buzzed in Cloud’s mind, and he wished Rain would hurry and get there so something would _happen_. Even that dreaded conversation with Tifa would be a welcome relief, at this point.

A group of Evilgoyles ambushed them and Cloud had to fall back. Damn monsters! They had already explored all the caverns, how come there were always some of them left? He would have felt frustrated at being of so little use in the fight, but he noticed Zack and Angeal weren’t doing much themselves, content to let Sephiroth vent his own frustration of the past few weeks. Now Cloud didn’t know whether to feel awed by the man’s amazing fighting style or sorry for the monsters.

“Hey, wait up, man!” Zack called, laughing, as Sephiroth went chasing after his last prey. “Damn, eager much?”

They had to run after him as Sephiroth practically flew in a tunnel. All their good humour disappeared when they heard the metallic clang of blades clashing. They rushed around the corner to find a rather unexpected scene: Sephiroth was locked in a stalemate with Rain.

Although a frown was on his face, Cloud’s brother seemed unimpressed by the pressure Masamune was applying to his sword. His eyes were just as solidly locked to Sephiroth’s as their blades were. The last Evilgoyle lay dead at his feet.

“Did I steal your kill?” he carefully said. “Sorry for that.”

Sephiroth snorted. Then he consented to break their stare down and returned Masamune to his side. Rain visibly relaxed and Cloud rushed to him, elated.

“Rain! When did you get here?”

“Just now. You weren’t answering your phone, so I figured you lot were down here.”

They shared a hug.

“Glad to see you, mate,” Zack said, smiling. “It was beginning to get a bit boring out here.”

Cloud abruptly felt embarrassed.

“Oh, hum, that’s right. Rain, uh, I couldn’t quite figure out how to tell them you weren’t coming alone.”

Some eyebrows rose at that, though Sephiroth didn’t look very surprised.

“What’s that mean?” Zack asked. “Did you bring some friends?”

“You could say that. Some welcome and some… not so much.”

Rain looked pretty sour when he said that. Cloud winced.

“Was she that annoying?”

“If I have to hear her comment on men’s hygiene habits just one more time, I swear to Gaia, something painful will happen. Thankfully, we picked up someone she could chat with.”

That was the first Cloud heard of this.

“Oh? Was that why you had to make that detour?”

Rain answered with a grunt, but Cloud noticed he had once more locked eyes with Sephiroth. It didn’t seem to be a challenge, though, as Sephiroth actually seemed to relax a bit. It made Cloud really curious to know what these two had talked about on the phone when he had given Rain’s number to Sephiroth.

“Let’s go back so I can introduce everyone,” Rain suggested.

He turned on his heel to do just that, then glanced over his shoulder.

“Actually, Zack, would you mind going first?”

“Huh? Why?”

Rain shrugged.

“Humour me?”

Zack threw him an odd look, but consented.

“You are a weird, weird guy. What, did you get Shinra to set an ambush up there or something?”

“No offense, but if I did that, I would make sure to set the strongest of you three up for the fall.”

“That’s not you, Zack,” Cloud chirped helpfully.

“Hey, not you too, Spike! Besides, you don’t know that! Especially with Sephiroth being three-legged until this morning!”

“Do you want to test that theory, Zack?” came Sephiroth’s smooth reply.

He sounded so smugly unconcerned that even Zack had to shut up lest he dig himself in a hole. He was still muttering to himself when they cleared the last corner before camp.

There, he suddenly froze. Cloud peered around his shoulder to see a girl no less than ten feet away. Dressed in a practical pale pink dress, she had her hands clasped before her, and a hopeful smile lit up her face and made her pretty features seem stunningly beautiful.

“Zack!” she cried out. “I thought I recognized your voice!”

She rushed to him and hugged him around the middle. Zack embraced her back, though he seemed at a complete loss for words. Rain stepped around him with a weirdly fond look. Cloud made to follow, but suddenly found himself face to face with a pretty girl of his own.

“Cloud! There you are!” Tifa exclaimed. “I can’t believe how much time coming here took. And that guy wouldn’t even let me call you!”

She suddenly hugged him and he stood there, overwhelmed and stiff as a board. She pulled back barely a second later and scrutinized him head to toe.

“Huh. You are not a SOLDIER. You didn’t make it yet?”

His face couldn’t get any hotter. It would explode and splatter everyone with disgusting brain goo. Seriously.

“What is this?” Angeal grunted, pushing past them to get to the camp, and Cloud could have thanked him on his knees for the interruption. “A bunch of teenage girls, that’s your notion of helpful friends?”

“Hey!” Tifa protested.

Rain shrugged and averted his eyes, apparently deciding that explaining himself would use far too many words. Zack seemed to find his brain back and he took the unknown girl by her shoulders, drawing back to look at her.

“Aerith, what are you _doing here_? Don’t you know how dangerous this is?”

The girl, who was apparently his famous girlfriend, sobered and looked up at him.

“I do. Rain explained everything to me, but he also said I could help you and your friends.”

“You dragged her into this?” Zack snarled at Rain, suddenly not amiable at all.

“Zack, wait! He didn’t drag me into anything,” Aerith pleaded. “He explained, and then he gave me a choice. He said you were in no danger and that you would make it without me, but I thought long and hard about it… and I decided that if I could help, I should!”

Zack seemed at a loss, caught between wanting to strangle Rain and appease his girlfriend. Tifa was thankfully too caught up in the drama to pay any more attention to Cloud, who noticed that Sephiroth was pinning a particularly intent stare on Aerith.

Rain cleared his throat. He now seemed somewhat annoyed at having to deal with the insanity of so many people.

“Let’s just sit down and talk about all this, okay?” he sighed, heading his own words.

Cloud gratefully rushed to sit next to him, but since nothing was ever that easy, Tifa made a point of sitting at his other side. When all were settled, Rain glanced at a shadowed corner.

“I won’t ask that you join us, but at least show yourself.”

They all had the extreme surprise of seeing a man detach himself from the shadows and step forward. Sephiroth, Zack and Angeal immediately had their weapons in hand, and Cloud had to wonder how even three SOLDIER Firsts could have missed a man dressed in a _bright red coat_ standing just twelve feet away.

“I hate it when you do that,” Tifa said indignantly. “How long were you standing there? I thought you were outside!”

“I was. For a while,” the man answered, in a deep and rumbling voice.

Rain said nothing, but the look he threw at Angeal seemed to say “how’s that for a helpful friend?”.

“Who the hell are you?” Sephiroth growled.

“My name is Vincent Valentine. And you must be Sephiroth.”

Vincent seemed pretty interested in him.

“Vincent is a friend,” Rain added. “He agreed to help me with a few things. The girl next to Cloud is Tifa Lockheart, and she is here through absolutely no choice of my own. Please ignore her.”

Tifa reached around Cloud to try and swat him, but Rain effortlessly blocked her hand. Evidently, they had developed quite the habit.

“And a few of you know of Aerith Gainsborough.”

“Of course.”

That had been Angeal. Cloud hadn’t been aware Zack had introduced his girlfriend and his mentor… And judging from Zack’s perplexity, he hadn’t. First Sephiroth, now Angeal; was this girl some sort of celebrity or what?

“You know Aerith, Angeal?” Zack asked.

“I know _of_ her, like Rain just said. She is quite well-known among some of Shinra’s people. I also noticed a while back that you had met her.”

“She’s my girlfriend,” Zack said, frowning. “Has been for a few months now, right?”

“Hm hm,” Aerith smiled gently back at him and nodded, quite content to sit beside him and hold his hand.

“But I never got why Turks were hanging around her all the time. That’s what we are talking about, right? And by the way… they didn’t come all the way here with you, did they?”

He sounded alarmed, as if the thought had just occurred to him.

“No,” Rain said.

“Uh… How…?”

“I took care of it,” Valentine provided, just as succinctly as Rain.

Cloud remembered what Rain had been saying about picking up a friend who could take care of Turks. From Vincent’s unruffled answer and Zack’s baffled stare, he hadn’t been exaggerating.

“… Right. Anyway, what _is_ that about? Aerith?”

Her pretty smile had dipped around the corners and she looked hesitant. She glanced at Rain, questioning him.

“We might as well talk about it, since it’s for that reason that I asked you to come,” Rain said, gaze soft. “Do you want me to…?”

She shook her head before he could finish, sitting up straighter.

“No, I’ll say it. It’s my story to tell. And besides, I know you don’t like to talk much.”

Her tone was teasing, and they shared a smile. Cloud immediately noticed the unusual fondness in Rain’s expression. Unfortunately, Zack seemed to notice it too. He only blinked, not yet jealous, but a hint of suspicion in his eyes. Then Aerith started talking and he aimed all his attention at her.

She told them of the Cetra, an ancient race that had been steadily dwindling down since thousands of years ago, and of which she was apparently the last descendant. She told them of the Cetra’s unique link to the Planet and the Lifestream, and of how much Shinra was interested in her and how they had been keeping her under surveillance for years.

“That’s amazing, Aerith,” Zack breathed.

“I’ll say!” Tifa exclaimed, eyes wide. “You can really talk to the Planet?”

Aerith smiled timidly.

“Well, it’s more that I can sometimes hear her thoughts, or something like that.”

“Awesome! I can’t believe these rats at Shinra would want to use you for money. If they come for you, call me and I’ll come kick their asses!”

Aerith giggled and thanked her. Apparently, Cloud thought, Tifa had found herself a new friend during the journey to Banora.

“And you thought her abilities could help Genesis?” Sephiroth abruptly said.

He was talking to Rain, and it seemed to come from so far out of left field that Cloud had to wonder if he had missed a part of their conversation. Rain didn’t react, apparently unsurprised, but Angeal and Zack had both frozen.

“Like I told you, I have no idea if this will work. But if someone can help, it’s Aerith. Just don’t get your hopes too high.”

This was actually aimed at Angeal. Angeal didn’t look like his hopes had even had the time to raise a head, let alone get too high; he was too thunderstruck.

“Help Genesis? What do you mean?”

Rain threw a glance at Sephiroth, who was studiously not looking at Angeal. Cloud saw a faint surprised smile appear on his brother’s face.

“Sephiroth asked me if I could think of anything that would heal Genesis.”

“You did?” Zack blurted out, turning to Sephiroth.

“Sephiroth…” Angeal could only say.

A lesser man might have blushed. Sephiroth simply gave a toss of his head and ignored the both of them. It made Angeal smile with something akin to wonder. He turned to Aerith.

“And you agreed to this?”

“Rain only told me you had a friend who had gotten very ill because of Shinra, and that he might need the Planet’s help. I don’t know exactly why he thinks I’d be able to help, but if I can do anything, I am willing to try. Apparently, Rain knows a lot of things I don’t…”

She seemed a bit baffled when she said that, and it drew a laugh from Zack and knowing smiles from most of them. Even Vincent, Cloud noticed.

“Don’t we know what you mean!” Zack proclaimed.

Rain was scowling.

“If you lot are quite finished…”

 

* * *

 

Their camp was only meant for four people, all of them men, so they had to improvise a little to settle everyone. Aerith and Tifa got their own little alcove, separated from the rest of them by a makeshift screen made of a blanket and a few pieces of wood. They pooled the two group’s supplies and gathered around dinner. It was already late and the newcomers had been travelling all day: it was agreed anything else could wait for the morning.

Cloud thought it felt a bit weird to have so many people around all of a sudden, but it was nice. Tifa was hounding him for answers and he told her as much as he could: more or less what he had told the three SOLDIERs about the nature of his brother.

“You had that guy in your head all your life?” she exclaimed, appalled. “That must have been so annoying!”

“Of course not!” he rebuked. “It was great having someone like Rain to talk to. His quick thinking got me out of more than one tight spot, and he’s always so calm…”

Tifa huffed and crossed her arms.

“Yeah, right. Calm? Blank is more like it. You shouldn’t let someone like him boss you around, Cloud! He just likes to pretend he’s better than the rest of us. You don’t even know where he came from!”

“Why are you so hard on him?” he asked, more and more surprised. “What did he do to you?”

“To me? Nothing. But none of what you said explains why that guy felt it was smart to blow up a Mako reactor!”

Rain had been holding a quiet conversation with Vincent Valentine who was sitting next to him, having deigned to leave the shadows to get some sustenance. At Tifa’s outburst, Cloud’s brother looked up.

“Talking about me?”

“Who else goes around blowing up Mako reactors?” Tifa accused, glaring. “And after having possessed Cloud for years like a creepy ghost, too. What, are you some alien from outer space bent on destroying mankind?”

“You destroyed a reactor?” Sephiroth jumped in, eyebrows raised high.

He had been keeping a close eye on Rain, clearly unwilling to let him leave his sight for now.

“I didn’t blow it up,” Rain answered, rolling his eyes.

“It was a close thing!”

“And Vincent helped.”

Vincent didn’t dignify that with a comment, opting instead to stay focused on his dinner. It felt weird to see him eat normal food, as Cloud had been nearly sure he was a vampire or something.

“But you nearly destroyed a reactor,” Sephiroth insisted.

“Yes. So?”

“Why did you do that?

“… Let’s keep this kind of questions for tomorrow.”

Sephiroth raised his eyebrows once more, but didn’t pursue the matter. There was a bizarre lack of enmity between him and Rain at the moment. Cloud had to wonder how much of that was due to the lighter way Rain seemed to be carrying himself since he had arrived in Banora. Clearly, what he had been doing in Nibelheim had mattered a lot to him and his plans. That success had had a positive effect on his mood.

He wasn’t the only one to be happier that evening, actually. Zack and Aerith barely left each other’s side, engrossed in a conversation about, of all things, flowers and wagons, from what Cloud heard of it. Hope had finally reached Angeal’s heart and the load on his shoulders seemed lighter, the lines on his face softer. Sephiroth’s adamant watch of Rain’s every movement gradually relaxed until he seemed content to bid his time for the evening. As for Cloud himself, with his brother in arm’s reach and Tifa chattering endlessly about everything he had missed in Nibelheim since he had left, he discovered he couldn’t quite stop smiling.

Maybe everything would eventually end up alright, after all.

 

* * *

 

The doors to Genesis’ chamber opened slowly. As soon as she saw the huge statue in its centre, Aerith gasped, wide-eyed.

“This place…”

“What’s up, Aerith?” Zack asked worriedly.

The girl turned to Rain, like she expected him to explain something, but he was inspecting the place with pensive eyes.

“The presence of the Planet is strong, here,” Aerith breathed.

She slowly stepped forward. Genesis sat at the foot of the statue, looking unblinkingly at them all. His hair was completely white and bandages still littered his body. Aerith stopped at the threshold, hesitating. Zack was instantly by her side.

“I’ll come with you. I can’t let you go inside alone.”

Aerith looked unsure.

“Actually… Rain… would you mind coming instead?”

They all turned to Rain, who merely tilted his head in interrogation.

“The Planet’s voice is strong around you, too. I felt it the first time we met,” Aerith said, gazing down. “I think it might be easier if you are here.”

Something dark flitted in Rain’s eyes, but he nodded and joined her without a word. Aerith smiled at Zack before entering, but though Zack smiled back, Cloud noticed with worry that he began frowning as soon as she turned. Cloud would have to talk to Rain soon about this. He didn’t want to have to worry about his brother clashing with his best friend in addition to his hero.

They all stared at the two of them as they strode through the room. Genesis stood with difficulty, wary of the two new faces approaching him. Echoes of his voice reached the group staying behind the door.

“ _Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul, Pride is lost, Wings stripped away, the end is nigh._ ”

Aerith and Rain stopped, still a respectable distance from Genesis. The young woman was prudently staying behind Rain.

“And who might you be?” Genesis added, face gaunt and voice hoarse. “New jailers for the old prisoner?”

Cloud thought with a hint of trepidation that he actually sounded saner than the day before. By the way Angeal’s shoulders had tensed, he had noticed too. Aerith stayed silent, and Rain grudgingly answered.

“Genesis Rhapsodos. Former SOLDIER First Class.”

“That’s me. And you are?”

“… Someone trying to help.”

Genesis laughed, and it was still an ugly sound that made Cloud shiver.

“Are you here to attempt and ‘redeem’ me too, then? How foolish.”

He slowly stepped forward, but what should have been an intimidating act lost its effect under the weight of his wounds.

“ _My friend, the fates are cruel…_ ”

Rain’s hand flew to his sword and Genesis stopped and tensed. Angeal had flinched, ready to intervene, but Rain didn’t draw. He didn’t let go of his weapon either. With his back turned to the door, Cloud couldn’t see his brother’s face, but he noticed the tight grip he kept on the hilt and the suddenly wary look in Genesis’ eyes.

When Rain spoke again, his voice was so low Cloud’s unenhanced hearing nearly missed it.

“How long are you going to pretend your fate is not your own? Saying your faults and failures are only the result of your Goddess’ will… Aren’t you tired of being a victim?”

“This world made me a victim. I am merely rebalancing the scales,” Genesis warily replied.

“No. You are desperately begging for someone to drop the reason of your existence in your lap, rather than actually working at finding it in yourself. Grow up.”

Genesis took a step toward him, pale with anger. Rain drew his sword, then, and pointed it at him. Genesis jumped back and clumsily drew his own rapier, which they had failed to get away from him.

“Is that really how you want it to end? You drowning in your pain and your bitterness, lashing away at everyone that still cares about you despite it all? Didn’t you want to be a hero?”

There was a strange weight to Rain’s voice, like something old and still painful. Cloud shifted and forced himself to not run to his brother’s side.

“ _Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds…_ ” Genesis quoted in a breath, then, louder as if to convince himself: “I will be! I will.”

Rain lowered his sword to his side and tiredly shook his head.

“No hero would have forced his friends to share his sins. You truly are pitiful if you can’t realize their pain.”

Cloud hadn’t expected Rain’s words to have any impact on Genesis, but the man looked confused. He blinked hard and stared at his rapier with a frown, tottering on his feet. Rain took the opportunity to interrogate Aerith with a jerk of his chin. She nodded, and they stepped away from Genesis and toward the door. As soon as they were out, Sephiroth snatched the usual Materia from the pedestal. The door closed on Genesis’ unreadable expression. Cloud rushed to Rain’s side and put a hand on his arm.

“Are you all right?” he asked worriedly.

Rain looked bone-weary, but he managed a small smile.

“Yeah. Don’t worry. Just bad memories.”

Although Sephiroth remained impassive, Angeal was frowning.

“Was antagonizing him like this really a good idea?”

Rain didn’t answer and simply turned to Aerith. Her hands clasped under her chin, she looked pensive. Zack threw a concerned arm around her shoulders.

“I’m okay,” Aerith said, clearing her throat. “And I think Rain was right to do that. I could feel the Planet around, observing. She is watching this man, but she is wary of him. And sad, too. It’s like she wants to save him, but she can’t do that until he has saved himself.”

“Saved himself…” Zack repeated. “What does that mean?”

“I think she wants him to remember himself. If he can find peace, she will help.”

“Meaning the Planet can actually help against the physical degradation?” Sephiroth asked, his stare intense, before turning to Rain. “You were right. Once again. How could you possibly have known that?”

“I told you I didn’t know anything. It was just a guess.”

“And you formulated the hypothesis that the planet’s essence might have an effect on the J cells… from what, thin air?”

“Oh Gaia, there he goes again,” Zack said with actual humour.

“It’s a valid question and you know it,” Sephiroth insisted, frowning.

“All your questions are valid,” Rain retorted curtly. “That’s the problem, because you’ve got plenty. And every right to quite a few answers, too.”

He sighed dejectedly, but although he seemed worried and his eyes automatically searched for an exit, he made no move to escape the room. Cloud couldn’t help squeezing his arm, hope growing in his heart and his eyes. Sephiroth looked surprised.

“Does that mean you will actually stop evading?”

Rain crossed his arms and looked at his feet, tense.

“I will answer a few,” he said, to Cloud’s delight.

Tifa mock-gasped.

“Quick, fireworks!”

“Not for you,” Rain instantly rebuked.

He ignored her cry of protest and looked Sephiroth in the eye.

“I will answer every question you have about your origins and your nature. Everything you have been searching for in Shinra; if I know it, I’ll tell you. It’s what you wanted from me, right?”

Sephiroth’s eyes had gone wide with surprise and hope. Angeal clapped him on the shoulder, happy for him.

“That’s great, my friend!”

Rain anxiously averted his eyes.

“It’s your story… But you must know it’s not a pretty one, and I…”

He stopped, as if unsure. Sephiroth tilted his head. Although he looked eager, he was not getting as overbearing as he had been that day in a dingy hotel in Midgar when Cloud had first talked about the source of the J cells.

“Yes?” he encouraged, voice deep and deliberately calming.

To Cloud’s huge surprise, the tone seemed to work on Rain. And here Cloud had thought his brother would never be receptive to anything from Sephiroth!

“I’d feel better if you didn’t learn it alone,” Rain said.

To Sephiroth’s credit, he immediately glanced at Angeal. His friend looked touched.

“You want me to be there?”

“Don’t look so surprised. With everything that has come to light about you this past year, I think it’d only be fair if you knew just as much about me.”

Angeal smiled, grateful. Rain looked relieved. When Sephiroth turned to him, he wordlessly nodded. Tifa crossed her arms, pouting.

“And what about the rest of us, then?” she huffed, even though Aerith giggled at her. “Left in the ditch to rot with the roadkill?”

“You can play hide and seek with Vincent, if you want,” Rain said in a rare show of good humour.

Tifa glared and Zack let out a bark of laughter. Then he glanced self-consciously around him.

“By the way, where is that guy?…”

They started warily glancing around, looking for an invisible red coat, while Rain shrugged in his version of “I told you so”. He interrogated Cloud with a single glance, making sure he didn’t resent not sharing the confidence to come. Cloud grinned, already overjoyed that he was willing to put that small bit of trust in Sephiroth. Of course he was curious, but the least he could do was to grant his hero his privacy.

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” he whispered. “You’ll see!”

Rain’s answering smile was strained, but Cloud could tell he wanted to believe it too.

“Time will tell,” he simply answered.

He turned to walk out, Sephiroth and Angeal dutifully following.

 

* * *

 

They had been gone for about an hour, now. Cloud had to admit he was getting antsy. Rain had made such a big deal of it, he hoped nothing bad would happen.

Tifa and Zack were happily sharing stories about Gongaga and Nibelheim while Aerith, who had known nothing but the under-Plate Midgar before Rain had come for her, listened with rapt attention. Cloud felt a pang of sympathy for the city girl. He had noticed she was even kind of afraid of the blue sky, so used was she to see the Plate above her head. How miserable was that? To think someone who talked to the Planet had led that kind of existence…

Cloud was a bit too distracted to participate in the conversation, so he made himself busy by checking the supplies. He soon felt an intense stare on him. He glanced around the cave and was surprised — alright, and maybe a bit spooked — to find Vincent looking straight at him. When had the guy even came in? When their eyes met, Vincent came closer and settled on the ground not too far from Cloud. Without a word, he set to cleaning his gun. Nervous, Cloud was about to ignore him and go back to his task when he finally spoke.

“You’re… Cloud Strife. Rain’s brother. Right?”

Cloud nearly started and told himself off for being so jumpy. Vincent was a friend of his brother, surely there was no reason to be scared of him!

“Hum… Yeah,” he answered, trying to sound casual. “We are not blood-related, though.”

“Aren’t you?”

Vincent looked up at him.

“Hum…” he said after staring for a few seconds. “I guess it’s a question of interpretation.”

Cloud’s heart jumped in his chest. Did he mean what he thought he was saying? Could it be… Rain had told Vincent who he was and where he was coming from? And if that was the case, did it mean Cloud’s guess on Rain’s identity was right? Did he dare ask? Should he? No… Before anything, he had to talk to Rain about it. It was the least he could do.

Just then, Angeal and Sephiroth came in. They all expectantly looked up, but Sephiroth, his expression closed, scanned the cave with a sweeping look of his peculiar eyes. He located Vincent and went straight for him. Surprised, Cloud scrambled out of the way.

“Valentine. If I may talk to you in private?”

Vincent looked at him for a moment, then he nodded and got up to follow him away. Everyone else turned to Angeal, who merely shook his head with a sigh. He gestured for Zack and Cloud. Cloud eagerly joined him while Zack excused himself to the girls.

“What’s up?” Zack asked, trotting to Angeal’s side.

“Well, Sephiroth got his answers.”

He shrugged and led them to an adjacent cave where Tifa and Aerith wouldn’t hear them. He turned back to Zack and Cloud.

“He asked me to update you two with the salient facts. He seems to think he owes you that much.”

Cloud felt warm inside, surprised pleasure making his way to his face. Zack seemed equally flattered.

“That means he trusts us somewhat, right? I’m glad! Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are making any impact on that guy!”

Angeal gave a small smile, but his mind was clearly elsewhere.

“So, what did Rain have to say?”

“Well,” Angeal sighed. “Apparently, Sephiroth is Hojo’s very own biological son.”

“No way,” Zack said, unable to believe it. “Hojo? That greasy guy?! There is no way he can share any DNA with Sephiroth! It’d be like comparing a dead fish and a… a…”

“Hojo…” Cloud said, confused. “It’s that guy Rain mentioned once, right? The one in charge of Sephiroth’s physicals?”

“That guy is creepy as all hell, Spike!” Zack burst out. “He’s Shinra’s head scientist, and you wouldn’t believe the stories I heard about him. A woman would have to be seriously messed up to get in bed with him!”

“Watch your words, Zack,” Angeal growled. “That messed up woman was Sephiroth’s mother. Rain was very clear about that: Hojo is Sephiroth’s father and he is a hundred percent certain of this information. Besides, it all makes sense in the end.”

“How so?” Cloud couldn’t resist asking.

“Because Hojo is just the type to use his own offspring in unethical and dangerous experiments.”

And he went on to describe Project S, Hojo’s lead project, which had involved nothing less than injecting big quantities of J cells in a foetus while it was still developing in its mother’s womb.

“Directly in the foetus?” Zack gasped. “But it’s that stuff they inject SOLDIERs with! Cloud was even violently allergic to it! What if the foetus had died?”

Cloud himself was appalled. What he had learned about Project G, Angeal and Genesis was already pretty unsettling, but it seemed this Hojo guy was even further gone than Hollander!

“I doubt Hojo would have cared much about that,” Angeal said, his face grave, “except that he would have had to work harder to create the perfect soldier.”

“And the mother?” Cloud asked, heart in his throat. “She actually agreed to that?”

“Rain admitted he didn’t know much about Sephiroth’s mother, other than that her name was Lucrecia Crescent and she was a scientist working with Hojo at the time. He sent Sephiroth to talk to Vincent, actually, since it appears he knew her.”

“Uh. What were the odds?… Wait, forget that, we’re talking about Rain.”

While Zack rolled his eyes, Cloud was frowning.

“Didn’t Sephiroth say his mother’s name was Jenova, though? I thought he did.”

Sephiroth didn’t talk much about himself, but he was sure he had heard him mention this once in conversation since they had fled Midgar.

“That’s what Hojo told him,” Angeal answered with a smile that was more bitterness than joy. “Apparently, Hojo felt that the real mother of his perfect soldier was not a puny female human scientist, but the source of the J cells itself.”

“J cells… Jenova,” Cloud breathed, eyes wide.

“That’s… seriously messed up, man,” Zack said with a shiver. “So then, what’s that Jenova thing? Did Rain tell?”

Angeal became a blank mask. Clearly, that information had upset him too.

“Well, it seems every SOLDIER has been injected with cells from a being from out of this world.”

And then he told the tale of a creature that had fallen from the sky thousand of years ago and nearly destroyed the entire planet before she was sealed away, in a place where Shinra scientists then found her, only to decide playing with her cells would be an excellent idea to create an undefeatable army. Understandably, Cloud and Zack were pretty shaken.

“So… You had an alien in your head?” Cloud asked, voice very small.

“Apparently. But there is some good news.”

“How can _anything_ about this be good?” Zack exclaimed, very pale.

Cloud didn’t blame him. _He_ , at least, had never made it into SOLDIER. Having Mako injected in your body was one thing, it actually belonged on this Planet. But cells from a powerful alien that had been known to mess with heads…

Angeal smirked. Although a bit under the weather himself, he seemed to derive a wicked satisfaction from something.

“Rain very recently took it upon himself to get rid of her. From the way he said it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he chopped her in little tiny pieces and lit her remains on fire. So, there is that.”

“Oh,” Zack could only say. “So… No more breakdown for you?”

“None. Unless you are planning on doing something particularly stupid, of course.”

“Hey, why me?” Zack exclaimed, outraged, while Cloud sniggered at him.

 

* * *

 

By the time night fell, Sephiroth still had yet to come back. Valentine had been around, so obviously their conversation was finished. Angeal was reasoning that Sephiroth was probably off somewhere trying to get all of the pieces of his life back into order and that he needed the distance, but Rain was getting more nervous by the hour; it was obvious to see in the glances he kept stealing to the cave exit and in the obsessive way he was cleaning his sword.

With a small sigh, Angeal acknowledged that he should step in. He had been intending to go back to Genesis, with which he had spent most of the day since the Cetra girl had delivered her advice, but he didn’t think letting Rain act on his paranoia would be a good idea.

“I’m going to go look for Sephiroth,” he said, getting up from his place around the dinner campfire.

“OK!” the ever-reliable Zack cheerfully answered for everyone.

Rain said nothing, but he looked at him and the tension around his eyes lessened a little. He nodded.

Finding Sephiroth didn’t take long. As expected, he had found the highest ground in the vicinity and was firmly planted on his two feet, arms crossed over his chest. His back was to Angeal and his hair was billowing in the night breeze.

“Rain is about ready to come and drag you back inside,” Angeal quipped. “Or challenge you to a duel, it’s hard to tell.”

Sephiroth barely turned his head to acknowledge his presence, not yet offering him his profile.

“… Is that so.”

“It reminds me of the day we found him and the way you looked about ready to strangle answers out of him.”

“Answers I now have.”

“And how does that feel?”

Sephiroth turned to him, then, eyes blank.

“Are you also afraid I’ll fall to Genesis’ madness, Angeal?”

Angeal smiled.

“No, I’m not worried about that.”

“Because I am not alone?”

“And because Rain challenged you.”

Sephiroth raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Not to a duel, but that’s still just as good as a challenge for you. Because he looks so ready to believe you’ll lose part of your sanity, you won’t let yourself. That would make him right, and you don’t want that.”

“Do you really think I am that petty?”

“With Rain? Absolutely.”

A surprised smile came to Sephiroth’s lips, proof if he needed one that his friend was in no murderous rage.

“That’s a bold claim.”

“Just admit it, Sephiroth. Rain intrigues you.”

Sephiroth scoffed, closing his eyes, but still smiling.

“He irritates me beyond all belief.”

“It’s good for you,” Angeal claimed, smiling himself. “Years with half of Shinra at your beck and call have made you spoiled.”

“Isn’t that why I had you and Genesis, though?”

“And yet Rain irritates you a lot more than Genesis, and without really trying, too.”

Sephiroth didn’t deny it. He just turned his face to let the wind play with his hair. He looked content enough, maybe even happy. Finding out he was one of Hojo’s projects couldn’t have been such a shock. He had had months to get used to the idea following the unveiling of Genesis and Angeal’s story. Hopelessly waiting for a confirmation must have been the most taxing, and maybe Sephiroth would have reacted very differently if he had been the only one left; but Angeal was still here, still sane, proof that they could live with that burden.

His parentage actually had to have been the ugliest shock of them all. Sephiroth had always held Hojo in contempt, going so far as to call him “a walking mass of complexes”. It seemed, though, that Valentine had successfully distracted him with information about his mother. It had been a long while since Angeal had seen him so at peace.

“Sephiroth,” Angeal called. “What are you going to do, now?”

Sephiroth turned back to him, a faint smile still on his lips.

“What do you mean? I am the one who asked Rain to bring that Cetra girl here. I’ll at least see how this plays out.”

Angeal smiled back, grateful that he hadn’t yet completely closed the door on Genesis.

“Bur afterwards? I can’t see you moving without some sort of grand plan. Now that you are no longer Shinra, and that you accomplished the goal that made you leave it… what now?”

Sephiroth tilted his head, considering.

“I suppose that depends mainly on Rain.”

“Rain?”

“An ex-Turk and a Cetra girl… Strange allies.”

“Valentine is an ex-Turk?” Angeal asked, disturbed.

It wasn’t so far-fetched given his abilities, but as far as he could fathom, Turks were like SOLDIERs in that regard: there was no “ex-” before their names, because once in, they didn’t leave the company. Ever.

“Fascinating, isn’t it? And then there is the Mako eyes, the striking resemblance to Strife while they claim to not be blood-related, the way the “Planet’s voice” is apparently stronger when he is near…”

“… the time he spent in Strife’s head, the Mako crystal in that strange city, his near-encyclopaedic knowledge of all of Shinra’s secrets…” Angeal finished for him. “Yes, he is a bundle of mysteries. And his objectives are still unknown to us, even though his actions have thus far seemed to benefit us. You want to keep an eye on him?”

“I don’t have anything better to do, short of overthrowing Shinra. And I’m not yet bored enough to get to that.”

“… The scariest thing is that you are probably not really joking.”

Sephiroth merely answered with a smile.

“Have I been missing dinner? I’m starving,” he proclaimed, brushing past him to get to the cliff side.

Gaia help them all if Sephiroth ever _really_ got bored.


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncorrected chapter...

When Angeal and Sephiroth joined the others in the cave, Tifa and Aerith had already retired to their alcove for the night. Cloud and Zack were quietly talking near the fire, and Rain was exchanging a few words with Valentine further away. Their conversation stopped when the two Firsts came in. Rain threw a piercing look at Sephiroth, who ignored him to retrieve his dinner. Cloud and Zack both turned to Sephiroth and smiled, glad to see him back, and Zack began prattling about some thing of no consequence.

Angeal saw Valentine turn back to the shadows and disappear. Rain came back to the fire and began putting away the tools he had used to take care of his sword. He was cautiously glancing at Sephiroth but the tension was mostly gone from his body language. Figuring he might as well try to pierce some of the mysteries of this man, Angeal approached him.

“Is this a new blade?”

Rain glanced at him, surprised, then at the sword lying by his side.

“I guess. Though it’s already in a pretty sorry state considering what few battles it has seen so far.”

Angeal examined the weapon more closely. It was a large broadsword of standard quality, barely of a higher make than what most monster hunters would use. Now that he was looking, he could see the hilt had gone somewhat loose despite Rain’s best efforts to consolidate it. The blade was also pretty scuffed.

“It does look sub-par for someone enhanced like you.”

“It can’t be helped. I bought it on Cloud’s money, I didn’t want to use everything.”

“You lost your previous sword, then?”

Angeal swallowed the hint of condemnation that wanted to seep into his voice. The Buster Sword was special to him, and he knew Sephiroth and Genesis also treated their personal weapons with great care. When you lived by the sword and became as good at it as all three of them were, the blade that followed you in every battle was no longer a tool: it became a companion, and about as precious as the men fighting by your side. But for all he knew, Rain had never found that faithful friend and was used to less than satisfying swords. Zack certainly had yet to find his, much to Angeal’s regret.

However, Rain’s scowl soon seemed to dismiss this possibility. He nodded.

“With all my clothes, my Materia and my own money, I suspect. I’m more upset about the swords, though.”

“I take it they were good blades.”

“The best,” he said with no hint of boasting. “And completely unique, as far as I can tell. It was a set of six swords interlocking into one.”

Angeal’s eyes widened. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that Cloud and Zack had turned back to their previous conversation and Sephiroth was unashamedly eavesdropping on Rain and him.

“It does sound very interesting! There is no chance to get them back?”

Rain only shrugged, but the movement was gloomy. Sephiroth seized the opportunity to put his empty bowl aside and join them.

“How could you possibly use as much as six swords in any practical way?” he asked, smoothly sitting beside them.

Angeal feared for a moment that Rain would clam up at the intrusion. However, he didn’t move except to throw a peculiar side glance at Sephiroth.

“The blades came in a variety of shapes and sizes that made it easy to adapt to different combat situations. They could be merged, wielded separately, or any combination of the two. I am a versatile fighter, so this works best for me. Worked.”

His lips thinned, showing his displeasure at having to correct himself.

“What were they called?” Angeal asked softly, because he could relate to such a loss.

“The Fusion Swords.”

Sephiroth snorted.

“Quite unimaginative,” he said despite Angeal’s warning glance.

Rain didn’t seem to take offense, though. He shrugged once more.

“I guess I am an unimaginative person.”

A short silence settled over them. Rain looked lost in thought, but he was probably not as unaware as he seemed to be of the way Sephiroth was staring at him. Angeal jostled his friend’s shoulder, trying to get him to stop. Sephiroth only smiled at him. Sighing, Angeal rose.

“The first watch—”

“Vincent took it,” Rain said without looking up.

“Oh,” Angeal replied, thrown.

He exchanged a glance with Sephiroth, unsure of how he felt trusting an unknown quantity like Valentine to guard their sleep. There was not much that could be done without alienating their tentative allies, though, and Sephiroth apparently felt the same since he didn’t argue.

“I’ll take second, then.”

“I’ll tell him,” Rain answered.

“Thanks.”

Angeal nodded to Sephiroth and went to join Cloud and Zack where they were settling for the night. Silence reigned over the two men left, but Sephiroth knew Rain wasn’t ignoring him. Somehow, this man seemed completely unable to do that.

“… How are you doing?” was asked not too long after, as if to confirm his thoughts.

“Still sane.”

Rain snorted.

“I can see that,” he muttered. “ _Anyone_ can see that.”

“Oh?” Sephiroth asked with a bland smile.

Rain glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. He hadn’t moved, but Sephiroth could see he was tense. When he next talked, his voice had lowered.

“When Genesis learned the truth about himself, he fled and betrayed Shinra.”

“Your point?”

“What would _you_ have done in his position?”

For a short moment, Sephiroth allowed himself to dwell on the question. He thought about learning the secret of his birth out of the blue; he thought about Jenova, the name he had believed belonged to his mother; and more than anything, he thought about Hojo. He let the anger he had been feeling since Rain’s revelations burn through his veins, and he tried to picture how much stronger it could have been, how much fury he could have held in his hands. Would he have fled? No. He would have torn down the whole Shinra tower and burned it to the ground, floor by floor if need be.

He snapped out of the illusion. He was fairly sure he hadn’t moved an inch, but Rain was taut as a bow and he had a white-knuckled grip on the hilt of the sword lying next to him. There was no fear in his eyes, though. Only something hard and dark.

An unbelievable thrill ran through Sephiroth. This man could see the monster in him, when even Angeal and Genesis barely suspected its existence. He could see it, and he did so without flinching.

“You are a lot more dangerous than Genesis,” Rain grimly breathed.

“Which is why you are here,” Sephiroth said, staring at him with intensity. “Why you bothered with Angeal, and why you only care about Genesis in so far as I do.”

Rain didn’t answer.

“One thing I don’t understand, though. Why not just kill me? You had the opportunity in that abandoned city.”

Rain gave a crooked smirk.

“Good night, Sephiroth.”

And thus saying, he got up and walked away.

 

* * *

 

Rain still wore that fond smile every time he looked at Aerith. The girls were giggling over one thing or another, and maybe Rain was also looking at Tifa, but it was doubtful that Zack would interpret it in this way.

Cloud winced and decided it was as good a time as any to have that conversation. Sephiroth and Angeal were gone to spend the morning with Genesis in the hope of sparking some sanity back in him, and Zack was still trying to wake up by guzzling way too much of their precious coffee stock. So Cloud stepped up to his brother, bent to his shoulder and asked:

“You got a minute?”

Rain smiled at him, too, which warmed him up inside. Then he nodded and set his empty cup down. He grabbed his sword and got up to follow him somewhere more private.

“Something wrong?”

“Uh, well… Honestly? You need to stop looking at Aerith like that,” Cloud said, wincing.

Rain looked surprised.

“Like that?”

“Like she is your long-lost sister or… well, your girlfriend.”

Rain shifted on his feet, bewildered.

“I… I do that?”

Cloud laughed.

“Maybe you are rusty at hiding your feelings too? But you definitely do that, and Zack has been giving you kind of evil looks on occasion. You didn’t notice?”

“Uh… No.”

Rain looked disturbed.

“Well… was she? I mean… your girlfriend?” Cloud asked, suddenly more serious.

Because if she had been, in that future where Rain was coming from, that might just complicate things. To his great relief, Rain shook his head.

“No… We were just… just very close. She did a lot for me. We might have become closer, but…”

Something dark and grim flashed through his eyes.

“Well. Even if it had happened, I wouldn’t make a move on her when she still has Zack.”

Cloud seized his chance.

“Because Zack is important to you too, right?”

“Right.”

Rain had said so mechanically, thoughts elsewhere. Cloud could tell the exact moment when he realized what he had just answered. His eyes widened and he turned back to him.

“Cloud…”

Cloud smiled, though a little sadly.

“It’s okay, I had sort of figured it out. I would have been quicker about it if I had just met a man who looked exactly like me and he told me he came from the future, but… figuring out that kind of thing about someone you have known for so long… I guess it’s different.”

Rain didn’t answer, just stared at him. Cloud chanced an awkward grin.

“And, you know! While I was thinking about it, I finally remembered how you got that name, “Rain”. I was six at the time, so I had nearly forgotten, but you _did_ say your name was Cloud when we first talked. So if I had remembered sooner…”

He was babbling, he knew that, but he couldn’t seem to stop. Luckily, Rain resolved the problem by suddenly hugging him. Cloud froze. Rain had briefly hugged him once or twice before, but only on parting and greeting, and never this spontaneously.

“R… Rain?”

“You are my brother, Cloud. You are my little brother, and I’m damn proud of you.”

To Cloud’s horror, he felt himself beginning to tear up. Rain drew away and held him at arm’s length, his hands warm on Cloud’s shoulders, to better look him in the eye.

“I’m not being narcissistic when I say that. Pretty much everyone thinks that if they were to see their younger self in the street one day, they’d march up to them and punch them in the face. And I thought that too. I hated what I could remember of the kid and the teenager I had been. And then I came here and I _met_ you. And you grew up to be an awesome and reliable young man, and it’s breathtaking for me to think that there is a part of you in me.”

“You idiot!” Cloud said, laughing through his tears. “There is even more of a part of _you_ in _me_! _You_ are the one who taught me how to be awesome and reliable. _You_ are the one who taught me to stop whining, to stop throwing tantrums, to actually think about how to get what I wanted and to never stop until I got it. I have no idea how you became the person you are today without… without…”

“… Me?” Rain suggested, smiling.

“Stop it,” he retorted, jabbing him in the stomach. “It’s confusing, damn it!”

Rain laughed softly and let him go.

“You’re right, it is. And it doesn’t really matter, anyway.”

Cloud froze while trying to discreetly wipe his tears away.

“It doesn’t?”

“No. Because in the end, you and I are different persons. Similar like brothers, but not the same. You won’t grow up to be my carbon copy, and that’s just as well.”

Cloud shyly smiled.

“Yeah… Though I guess I’m mostly done with the “up” part of growing, since we’re nearly the same height right now…”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Damn. I had hoped I still had a few good inches to go…”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

They smiled at each other, warm and loving. It should have felt narcissistic, but like Rain had said, there was no way they could be called the same person. Cloud had so, so many questions. About Aerith, about Rain’s Mako eyes and his SOLDIER strength, about his relationship with Tifa, about Sephiroth… But it felt like it would have been wrong and pointless to ask them now.

Rain turned back to the cave they were camping in.

“I guess I should talk to Z—”

The sound of an explosion covered the end of his sentence. It was muffled by distance and stone, but too loud to come from any Evilgoyles in the vicinity.

“What was _that_?” Cloud asked rhetorically, hand flying to his sword.

When he glanced at him, he noticed Rain had paled, eyes unseeing and one hand raised halfway to his temple.

“That’s impossible,” he heard him whisper.

“Rain?”

Rain snapped out of it and drew his own weapon.

“Find me Vincent or Zack and send him down,” he barked. “Guard the girls, _especially_ Aerith!”

Before Cloud could argue, he was rushing towards the inner caves. Cloud closed back his mouth and set his jaw. Rain had just complimented him for being reliable. He knew how to take orders, and he knew better than to argue when someone who obviously knew better than him was entrusting him with responsibilities. No matter how much he wanted to stay close to Rain, he wouldn’t let his brother down!

He turned and ran back to the others, half expecting to see Zack rushing in his direction to investigate the explosion… Instead, it was with a very pale Aerith that he nearly collided, at about the same time he started to hear the gunshots.

“Cloud!” the girl panted, out of breath. “It’s soldiers, Shinra soldiers! They are attacking us!”

 

* * *

 

There had been no warning.

One instant Sephiroth had been standing to one side of the room, face blank, observing Angeal trying to draw a mulish Genesis in friendly conversation; the next second, a large portion of the ceiling exploded down in a shower of stone and dirt and, though he was well out of the way, Sephiroth sank to his knees, suddenly so dizzy he barely remembered his name. He was hearing a loud sound, like white noise drowning the apocalyptic sound of the ceiling collapsing. Some barely conscious part of him wondered if his eardrums had just burst. He tried to touch a hand to his ears to see if they were bleeding, but his arm shook and only half-heartedly rose.

Belatedly, he looked up. A nightmarish creature was crouching on the rubble, all hideous black hide and incandescent green eyes. He should get up and fight it, he thought. Get up… get up…

From very far away, he heard:

“Genesis! Sephiroth! Fight it… It’s that thing in your head!”

In his head? Yes, that sounded right. The noise wasn’t his burst eardrums, just something in his head. That was a relief. Damaged eardrums would have compromised his balance. Why was that important, again?

Through the cloud of dirt, he saw Angeal stagger to his feet, wide-eyed and panting. The creature growled and turned to him. Before Angeal could even draw his sword in defence, it pounced.

 

* * *

 

“What?!”

Cloud nearly took Aerith by the shoulders, but stopped when he saw how terrified she was.

“Where?”

“At the tunnel’s entrance! Vincent stopped them before they could come in and him and Zack and Tifa are holding them off, but Zack said to come get you and Rain and to get Angeal and Sephiroth too…”

She gasped, her need for oxygen hindering her panicked babbling. Cloud felt the start of panic himself. Somehow, the enemy had apparently managed to find and engage three of their best warriors down in the tunnels while the rest of them were up there, forced to hold the fort alone. He toyed with the idea of sending Aerith down to warn them, but instantly berated himself. If some monsters found her, she would be helpless; and Rain had said to protect her, not send her in harm’s way! But then… No. Rain would realize something was wrong when no reinforcements came. He definitely would.

“Okay,” he said, more firmly than he felt because Aerith was deathly afraid and she needed him to be strong. “We’ll have to do this on our own for a while. Come on, you can’t stay alone in the tunnels.”

He suspected it was only the conviction in his voice that made her allow him to tow her back in the direction of the battle sounds. When they came to the deserted campfire, though, she stopped and refused to budge, shaking and white as a sheet. Cloud pointed to the girls’ alcove.

“Hide there, I’ll send Tifa to protect you!”

He didn’t want Tifa anywhere near the battle anyway, and this would make it impossible for her to refuse to get inside. Aerith nodded and gladly scurried in the dark corner while he ran to the fight, heart hammering in his chest.

 

* * *

 

The shock tore through part of the blanket around Sephiroth’s mind and his eyes widened just as an arc of blood flew upwards. He made it on one knee without really registering it. He could only see this: Genesis collapsing to the ground, three hideous gashes through his chest, at the feet of the horrified childhood friend he had just saved.

Footsteps. Someone was coming. Sephiroth painfully turned his head; he had never been more grateful to see Rain. The man was aggravatingly competent, surely he would be a huge help in getting rid of this creature. Already he was sweeping the room with his eyes, assessing the situation with cool efficiency. But Rain had barely taken three steps inside when he collapsed to his knees, gasping and clutching at his head.

A much hated voice rose in the air.

“Hold, Destroyer! What’s that? Another one? Hum… Why are you affected? Normal SOLDIERs shouldn’t be…”

It distantly registered as strange that Rain and him growled in perfect unison, with about the same amount of hate in their voices:

“Hojo…”

It definitely was that monster of a scientist’s voice, and it was coming from the creature. No. He could see it, now: some kind of harness around the beast’s head; there was the blinking eye of a camera. Hojo was watching his creation from afar. The thought sent his blood boiling, enough that he managed to get up.

“This abomination is yours?” Sephiroth growled.

“Surely you didn’t just expect to run away with your merry life?” Hojo mockingly scoffed. “I have invested too much in you to let you go, boy, especially now that some blasted meddler managed to do away with my most inestimable raw material.”

“Yes, what a pity your precious Jenova is gone,” Sephiroth hissed.

“Who told you about that?” Hojo spat, just as hostile. “Were you the one who destroyed her? No matter. At least I managed to scrape enough of what was left to create this most interesting specimen! He is more than suited to bring you back home! Destroyer, get Sephiroth now!”

The creature wailed a deafening assent and ran to Sephiroth, who could do nothing but awkwardly raise Masamune through the haze in his mind.

 

* * *

 

“Where are the others?” Zack yelled while they finished dealing with the last wave of assailants.

“There was an attack down there!” Cloud screamed back. “Rain ran back to help without realizing it was a mess here too!”

Zack swore.

“Down in the tunnels? There is only one entrance, how the hell did they manage that!”

Vincent was doing a good job of holding fire against what was probably some of Shinra’s best shooters, but it was only a matter of time before he ran out of munitions. Foot soldiers rushed in every time there was a hole in his defence, and it was only the tunnel’s narrow configuration that allowed Zack and Cloud to hold them.

They were nearly taken off-guard when, instead of getting the stampede of a half-dozen infantrymen as a warning, two men rushed in and engaged them. Cloud gulped and paled when he saw the glowing eyes of his adversary. These two were SOLDIERs.

It was all he could do to hold on to his belief that nothing would ever be able to keep his brother and Sephiroth busy for long if they actually joined forces.

 

* * *

 

Sephiroth knew he hadn’t imagined that furious battle cry when the creature reared back with an ear-splitting scream, one of its front paws neatly cut off. From where he had rushed in an instant to attack, Rain looked absolutely livid with rage. However he was also sweating heavily from exertion and his wild swing at the monster had made him lose his balance. When Destroyer retorted with a swing of his tail, the hit connected solidly with his torso and sent him flying through the room.

Sephiroth seized the opportunity to shake some of the fog from his mind and rushed its flank, leaving a long and deep wound that made it wail and turn back to face him. Sephiroth cursed his ailment. Used properly, that attack could have killed a dragon in one strike!

Just when Destroyer was snapping his jaws forward, the blue glow of a Limit Break erupted from another part of the room, flew through the air and tore through the monster’s scaly throat underside, blood messily bursting from the carotids. Too slow in his current condition, Sephiroth ended up sprayed with blood and dirt when the creature collapsed on its side, dead.

“ _No!_ ” Hojo screamed. “You useless Hollander spawn, what did you _do_!”

Angeal’s Limit Break faded. He staggered then collapsed to his knees, head in his hands.

“Why won’t it _stop_!” he moaned.

Adrenaline slowly fading, Sephiroth was feeling even fainter too.

“Burn it!” Rain’s voice rasped from somewhere. “To ashes!”

“ _No!_ ” Hojo all but screeched.

Too late: Sephiroth was already whipping out his bracer arm, the fire Materia in it glowing a bright green. He sent the highest level spell he could manage crashing on the monster’s body, then did it again and again. Within a minute, even the camera and the microphone were damaged beyond any use, the corpse a revoltingly stinking blackened heap.

Sephiroth gagged at the stench. His magic was completely depleted, but finally, the shroud in his mind vanished.

Angeal scrambled to his feet and rushed back to the other side of the room. Sephiroth’s eyes widened. He ran there himself and crouched by Genesis’ side. The man was still alive, if barely. Even Angeal’s obvious attempts to use Cure on him hadn’t done much against the ugliness of his wounds. Genesis was gasping each breath in, face contorted in agony, one of his hands tightly grasping Angeal’s.

He slit his eyes open when Sephiroth tentatively took his other hand.

“Ah…” he panted. “Sephiroth… You too… my friend…”

“Don’t speak, Genesis, please!” Angeal all but begged, tears in his voice.

Genesis merely smiled, closing his eyes.

“This is… kind of a nice… way to go… actually.”

Sephiroth felt him squeeze his fingers and knew it wasn’t out of pain. His throat closed. How curious. Was he actually mourning this man?

He heard tired footsteps drawing closer and turned to look at Rain over his shoulder. Whatever the man saw in his eyes made him stop in his steps as if thunderstruck. Rain hesitated, then slowly joined him and set a tentative hand on his shoulder. Sephiroth shivered at the unexpected comforting gesture.

Rain looked up and Sephiroth realized for the first time that they were huddled at the foot of the miraculously intact statue.

“Sorry we didn’t completely rid this place of all these J cells, but Genesis is kind of on a tight schedule,” Rain rasped. “So if you could still help right now, that’d be very much appreciated.”

There was no answer. No flash of light, no heavenly voice, nothing. But as Sephiroth looked down at Genesis in disappointment, he gasped in unison with Angeal. A thin green mist was rising from Genesis’ wounds, and soon from his white hair, his shoulders and torso. Genesis’ eyes were wide open, his face frozen in a raw expression of divine adoration. Slowly, his eyes closed. A serene smile settled on his lips as he slipped in unconsciousness.

His hair had turned back to their vivid red from before and there was not a trace left of the gruesome wounds. Angeal let an ungloved hand hover above his face.

“He is breathing,” he whispered reverently to Sephiroth, eyes shining.

Sephiroth smiled back. Rain was blinking at Genesis, as if not quite believing it had worked.

“Thank you,” Angeal fervently told him.

Rain blinked at him, then nodded, his face turning back to something grim.

“I don’t mean to be an ass, but I don’t think Genesis was the only one running out of time.”

“How so?” Sephiroth asked, snapping to attention.

“I asked Cloud to send us help as soon as I heard something going on here. Something is not right up there.”

“Let’s go,” Sephiroth immediately said, rising to his feet.

Angeal gathered Genesis in his arms and rushed out with them. Rain stopped at the door and glanced back at the statue.

“… Thanks for that,” Sephiroth heard him say.

Then they were running.

 

* * *

 

Aerith was shaking like a leaf. Tifa reached back and squeezed her hand, though she didn’t feel very confident herself.

“Don’t worry, everyone will be okay,” she whispered with a bright smile. “That’s what SOLDIERs are good for!”

Aerith gave a shaky nod and Tifa squeezed again before turning her attention back to the main cave. They were huddled against each other in the alcove, Tifa balanced on the ball of her feet in expectation of any attack. She cursed in her mind. SOLDIERs were made for fighting, sure, but what good were they when they didn’t show up? Cloud and Aerith’s boyfriend were holding the fort alone with that creepy sniper while that stupid Rain and the so-called “best SOLDIER” Sephiroth were nowhere to be seen!

Another round of gunshots. Someone screamed nearby and she cringed. Just thinking about Cloud fending off all these soldiers nearly sent her running back to help them, but Aerith needed her. She was her friend, and Tifa wasn’t going to let her stay here alone and terrified. If only that idiot Rain had used his brain before dragging the poor girl in this!

She didn’t hear them coming above the battle sounds, but suddenly two men rushed in the cavern and crossed it before she could even begin to react. She barely recognized Rain and Sephiroth, weapons in hand, before they disappeared and she was left gaping at their speed.

“Was that…?”

She didn’t finish the thought as the other SOLDIER barged in, that crazy friend of his cradled in his arms—had his hair just spontaneously turned from white to red since the last time she had seen him? What the hell?

Angeal spotted them.

“Come on!” he commanded. “This is the only practicable exit, we’ll have to force our way through!”

Tifa nodded and didn’t let go of Aerith’s white hand.

“We packed everything,” she said, for now forcing back her anger at their lateness.

She helped Aerith pick up the bags they had gathered in the alcove. Angeal took as much from them as he could, since his original burden already made him unfit to fight. They ran around the tunnel bend and almost immediately collided with Cloud. He was leaning against the wall, pale and gasping, the hand not holding his weapon clutching his side where blood had tainted the fabric red.

“Cloud!” Tifa exclaimed, alarmed.

She rushed to him, but he gave her a shaky but sincere smile.

“Reinforcements came in just in time.”

He jerked his head to the side. Further down the tunnel, Zack and Rain stood on guard while Sephiroth fended off two last attackers, who soon fell to add to the growing pile of bodies on the ground. Aerith gasped and turned her back to the scene and Tifa fought to hold on to her composure. Neither of them were professional fighters and there was so much _blood_ …

“Why would they keep sacrificing so many men?” she whispered, disgusted.

“Seems like they finally asked themselves that,” Cloud answered, although it had been a rhetorical question. “They stopped coming the instant they spotted Sephiroth.”

“Good timing,” Vincent said, coming from nowhere and startling everyone like usual. “I was nearly out of ammunition.”

“We need to get out,” Angeal said, face sombre.

“Cloud said there had been an attack down there?” Vincent asked.

“Yes, but it came from a near vertical tunnel. Climbing it would take too much time and we have no way of knowing if the other side would be guarded.”

Zack was sweaty and a cut near his brow had blood running along his face.

“Things don’t look too good,” he admitted, uncharacteristically solemn.

“We need a diversion,” Rain decided in his usual “this is the way it should be” manner.

“To do what?” Tifa huffed. “You think we’d all be able to run out of here and get to safety before the truckload of Shinra goons out there get back on our case? They probably have our cars, too.”

“We can, if Sephiroth and I take the fight to them.”

Tifa threw her arms in the air, exasperated.

“Like you’d manage that with just the two of you!”

“No,” Sephiroth contested, eyes cold and calculating, “Rain’s right. The main problem is the snipers, but if we could just get a head start, we are both quick enough to take them down so that the rest of you can flee.”

“No one is as quick as you, Sephiroth,” Zack said with a tired laugh.

“Rain is,” Sephiroth affirmed, which seemed to momentarily stun Zack.

“It’s a good plan,” Angeal nodded, “and I think I have just what you need.”

He shifted his grip on Genesis to show his Materia bracer, where one of the spheres was already glowing bright green.

“Quake,” Sephiroth said approvingly.

“Cloud, you’ll be okay to run?” Rain asked, eyes piercing.

Although he was still clutching his side, Cloud nodded.

“Not for too long, but I can hold my own for a while.”

“Then brace yourself and get ready,” Sephiroth ordered. “Get in the jungle and run as far as you can. Rain and I will catch up.”

They all nodded and suddenly, the ground was shaking like the end of the world was coming. They heard startled cries from outside and Sephiroth and Rain were gone in a flash of movement so quick Tifa barely caught it.

“Anyone else getting déjà-vu?” Zack asked Angeal and Cloud, smiling, as dust rained on them from the tunnel’s ceiling.

The screams outside shifted in tone and gunshots began to ring in the air.

“Go!” Angeal shouted as his spell started to fade.

Zack launched himself out, sword drawn. Tifa took Aerith’s hand again, raised her free fist and followed behind him. Angeal and Cloud were quick on their heels, with Vincent bringing up their rear. Some infantrymen immediately tried to attack them, but they didn’t have much luck against Zack and Vincent’s combined defence. Tifa focused on getting the terrified Aerith to the tree-line, blocking as much of the battle from her as she could. When she sneaked a glance around, she barely saw Sephiroth and Rain; they were blurs of movement right in the middle of the enemy’s numbers and men fell by the dozen under their blades. She could admit it to herself, at least: suddenly, they frightened her.

Some soldier rushed toward Aerith and her. Tifa let her fear and her anger lend her strength and laid him out in two quick hits. Master Zangan would have been proud. Heart in her throat, she tugged Aerith forward and they finally made it under the trees. Angeal was already wading in the undergrowth and she focused on following him, glancing back to see Cloud and Zack behind them. Vincent had disappeared again, presumably to provide some cover for Sephiroth and Rain’s retreat.

They ran.

Until the sounds of the battle began to wane behind them, and even further, until Aerith collapsed, out of breath and utterly unable to take another step forward. Zack immediately squatted next to her.

“Hey Aerith. Here, I’ll carry you.”

Aerith gasped and buried her face in his chest, bursting into tears. Zack looked stricken and Tifa glared at him like it was his personal fault that she had been swept in this mess.

“The poor girl is terrified out of her mind. I guess it’s not too surprising for a SOLDIER to see so many people dying, but not all of us are professional killers, you know!” she snapped.

Aerith cried even harder and she instantly felt bad. On behalf of who was she mad exactly, Aerith or herself? If she was honest with herself, she wasn’t feeling much better than her friend, she was just prouder and better at pretending. Zack’s eyes on her could as well have been those of a puppy she had kicked and she felt even guiltier. This mess wasn’t his fault in the first place; it was Rain’s.

“Tifa…” Cloud whispered, trying to put a calming hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off and stepped away, hugging herself. Their three missing members emerged from the trees.

“Why did you stop?” Sephiroth asked. “We have to keep going. The survivors will surely ask for reinforcements.”

“Oh, because you left some alive?” Tifa couldn’t help but snarl.

Cloud jumped like she had committed some sort of ultimate sin, but Sephiroth barely gave her a glance.

“Is anyone unable to continue?”

“I—I’ll carry Aerith,” Zack said, voice subdued.

He lifted her off the ground, though he now seemed thoroughly ashamed to be touching her in his blood-splattered clothes. Good, Tifa peevishly thought. He should be. Aerith was too innocent for someone like him.

“Cloud?” Rain asked, coming to his “brother”.

“I’d appreciate some support,” Cloud admitted.

His face was pale but his smile sincere. Sephiroth wordlessly walked to Angeal and relieved him of Genesis’ weight. In silence, they carried on through the jungle.


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Strange how I’m receiving mixed reactions about Tifa in this story! Some of you love her, others are very annoyed with her… If that’s you, I’m sorry about that! But remember she’s a teenager who spent her whole life being treated like a princess by basically her whole village, including Cloud. I always saw her as pretty aloof and selfish at this age. Nibelheim’s tragedy forced her to grow up, thankfully, and she will do some growing up in this story, though of course it will have to happen differently. Hope you don’t feel like strangling her too much in the meantime. :)
> 
> Uncorrected chapter...

They ended up camping in the wild, and without a fire since it would have attracted too much attention. It was going to be a humid and miserable night, but Cloud didn’t even think about complaining. They had no choice, and he was still in a much better situation than poor Aerith. She had subdued during the walk and apologized for her outbreak, but she was still pale and had trouble looking anyone but Tifa in the eye.

As a result, Tifa was sitting beside her and looking very protective, and all of them men had by a silent agreement taken turns at the stream near the camp to wash off the blood from their clothes and skin. All of them save Genesis, still unconscious, and Rain… Cloud’s brother was squatting in a corner since they had arrived and seemed lost in an intense bout of brooding.

Cloud lowered himself to the ground next to him, worried.

“Hey, Rain, are you alright?”

“I sure hope he is not,” Tifa muttered from the opposite end of the camp. “All of this is his fault, after all.”

“Tifa!” Cloud exclaimed, scandalized.

But instead of the long-suffering manner in which Rain usually interacted with Tifa, his brother merely gave her an unreadable glance and returned to his contemplation of the ground.

“It’s true!” Tifa insisted. “He had to go blow up a reactor and piss off Shinra, and now here we all are!”

“Actually,” Sephiroth said, “I doubt they were here for Rain; they didn’t seem to recognize him. Most likely, they were looking for Angeal, Zack and me.”

“But how did they find us?” Zack asked, worried. “We were so careful!”

“Maybe they asked around in Mideel and someone recognized my description,” Cloud suggested, feeling guilty even though it couldn’t have been helped.

“I doubt it,” Rain finally spoke up. “Mideel is not a very Shinra-friendly town, especially since Banora’s bombing.”

“You got a better proposition?” Tifa asked, scornful.

“Tifa, stop it! Why are you blaming Rain like that? He did nothing wrong!”

“Cloud is right,” Aerith shyly said. “It was no one’s fault.”

“I am unsure of that.”

To Cloud’s surprise, the one speaking had been Angeal. He was standing beside the prone Genesis, a no-nonsense expression on his face.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” he said to Rain. “I am grateful for what you did for Genesis. But I can’t help but wonder what that monstrosity that attacked us _was_ , when you were so adamant that we were now safe from the source of the J cells.”

To Cloud’s amazement, Rain closed his eyes and his face became drawn and taut.

“Jenova was destroyed,” Vincent answered in his stead. “I was there. We both made sure of that.”

Sephiroth had crossed his arms and his face was shuttered. It was obvious he, too, was displeased by whatever had happened in the caves. Cloud expected him to jump at the opportunity to get angry at Rain, but instead he said:

“Hojo as good as confirmed your claims. However, he also mentioned he had somehow used her remains to create that monster. Is this really enough to explain that Angeal, Genesis and I all fell prey to a mental attack you assured us could only come from Jenova?”

Rain was shaking his head with a distressed expression.

“I don’t know,” he sighed. “I really don’t understand. Did I mess up? Were there some live cells left, or was that… thing the result of Hojo’s desperation? I have no idea.”

 _I don’t get it at all_ , his face was saying, and Cloud understood: nothing like that had ever happened in the future he was coming from. He was completely out of his depth, no bit of otherworldly knowledge left to share.

Sephiroth took a step forward and Cloud tensed. He abruptly felt like they had gone back weeks ago, when Sephiroth had looked ready to do about anything to get some answers out of Rain.

“Then maybe you can clarify this,” he hissed. “Hojo himself said that normal SOLDIERs shouldn’t have been affected by that monster. Yet you were just as vulnerable to it as Shinra’s three prized experiments. _Why?_ ”

Rain was so high-strung he looked ready to bolt. He met Sephiroth’s stare head-on, but Cloud could tell it was out of sheer stubbornness. He didn’t answer. Sephiroth’s eyes became slits of simmering green. No one else dared to intervene.

“You are no ordinary SOLDIER,” Sephiroth growled. “I already knew that. You proved today your martial skills are of a SOLDIER First level, your speed even on spar with mine. And yet every time we had to practically pull answers out of you about Angeal’s or my nature, you never deemed it necessary to mention you had some firsthand experience with what we lived. Why? _Who are you?_ ”

Rain’s chin went down without him breaking their staring contest. Although being questioned by Sephiroth usually made him belligerent and he had to have seen him much more furious than this, his body language was screaming defensiveness to Cloud. What was going on?

A coughing fit broke the heavy tension that had settled over the camp.

“Ah! Genesis!” Angeal cried out, redirecting everyone’s attention to the red-haired man who was groaning on the floor, apparently awake.

Angeal dropped to his friend’s side and Zack rushed to help him, offering his water canteen. Aerith came over too, Tifa in her wake, to assert his health. For a moment, Cloud even saw Sephiroth’s eyes sway on the verge of some unnamed expression as he looked in Genesis’ direction. Then his face closed up once more and he gave a last, hard glance to Rain before striding to the group.

Cloud stayed by his brother’s side and put a hand on his arm.

“Hey, don’t worry,” he said, trying his best to smile. “Everyone is on edge right now, and you know how Sephiroth can get.”

Rain didn’t look at him. He took his hand, gently squeezed it, then brushed it off.

“I know, Cloud. I just need a… I need a moment alone. I’ll be back.”

He stood up and turned to walk away, disappearing between the trees. Cloud could only watch him go, feeling utterly useless.

 

* * *

 

Genesis was, incredibly enough, perfectly sane. The difference was so striking it felt like watching a completely different person. Angeal seemed overwhelmed by emotion and let an enthusiastic Zack narrate what had happened to get their motley group together and hiding in a jungle away from Shinra’s search parties.

“I… see,” Genesis finally said, at a loss for words. “What a curious turn of events. So coincidental, too,” he added with a twinge of suspicion. “And where is this strange Rain character?”

“Hiding away somewhere,” Tifa snorted.

“He took a moment away from some people who arbitrarily decided he was the source of all evil,” Cloud hissed, glaring at her.

Tifa seemed offended and turned her back to him, scoffing. Why was she being so unreasonable about this!

Genesis’ eyebrows lifted and he hummed. Then his focus shifted.

“If possible…”

He cleared his throat, looking uncharacteristically hesitant.

“I’d… appreciate it if I could have a word alone with Angeal and Sephiroth,” he said, voice stilted.

“Sure!” Zack exclaimed, jumping to his feet like he had been waiting for this signal. “Come on, everyone, time for dinner!”

This was at least one thing nobody felt like quarrelling over. They drifted further away to get their provisions out of the packs, leaving the three SOLDIERs alone. Cloud sneaked a glance at them over his shoulder. Angeal was sitting next to Genesis, a hesitant smile on his face. Sephiroth stood behind him, face unyielding and blank, but at least he seemed willing to listen.

Rain had given them this moment. Why couldn’t anyone but Cloud see that? He glanced at the jungle from which his brother had yet to come back, throat closing.

He jumped when a gentle hand touched his arm. He turned to see Aerith there. The young woman made a sincere effort to smile at him.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll come back safely.”

He smiled back, genuinely touched. There was at least one other person who seemed willing to believe in Rain.

“Thanks. You’re right, I’m sure he will.”

“While everyone is getting dinner ready, do you want me to take a look at your wound?”

She held up the first-aid kit in her hands, not meeting his eyes.

“Oh!” Cloud said, startled. “That’s kind of you, but…”

“It’s okay,” she said, valiantly looking up. “I can’t keep being afraid of a little blood. I agreed to be a part of this, so I should at least do my best to be useful. I know you are all doing your best and that this battle wasn’t your fault at all.”

What could he answer to that? He smiled again, with a hint of wonder.

“You’re being very brave. Sure, I’d like your help. Thanks.”

She blushed a little but seemed happy with the praise. Cloud sat down and removed his shirt to let her take a look at his flank and the crude excuse for a bandage he had put there himself.

By the time she was done cleaning and rebandaging the wound, the three SOLDIERs’ private conversation had come to an end. Sephiroth was as blank as before, but Angeal and Genesis’ interactions were friendly enough and they seemed to be making sincere efforts to return to their old relationship. Genesis even took a moment to apologize to Zack for all the trouble he had caused since Wutai.

“I know words are not much,” he said sombrely. “But I will sincerely do my best to atone for everything.”

“It’s fine, man,” Zack answered in typical Zack fashion. “I can tell you’re back to yourself. I’m looking forward to working with you!”

They shook hands and Genesis seemed reluctantly grateful for his unquestioning acceptance.

Genesis was still recovering, though, so he ate and went back to sleep, exhausted. The rest of them cleaned up after dinner, then prepared for the night. From the corner of his eyes, Cloud saw Vincent sneak away between the trees with some food. He returned some time later, empty-handed but alone. Cloud slipped in his sleeping bag and lay awake, staring at the night sky between the palm leaves.

Finally, an hour after everyone else had settled down, Sephiroth silently rose from his night watch. Cloud turned to look at him. The SOLDIER was staring at a dark patch of undergrowth from which soon emerged a familiar figure. Rain and Sephiroth exchanged a long, hard look, then turned away from each other. Sephiroth went back to his vigil and Rain crept to his sleeping space. He wordlessly put a hand on Cloud’s shoulder, acknowledging and apologizing for his sleepless watch, and lay down next to him.

Cloud closed his eyes and let a silent sigh of relief escape him.

 

* * *

 

The helicopters came at dawn. The firsts of their group had barely begun to awake when they heard and saw one pass low over the trees. The decision was unanimous: they had to move, because they had probably been seen. They packed in a hurry and set off minutes later, the girls and Genesis still bleary from sleep.

“Where are we even _going_?” Tifa asked, and Cloud could hear the hint of fear in her indignant voice. “We can’t keep running forever!”

“We need vehicles,” Sephiroth answered.

“Mideel is the only decent-sized town on the island now that Banora is gone, and we set off in the opposite direction from it,” Rain pointed out.

“I would have proposed transportation, but I think my last copies are gone,” Genesis said. “It would be much simpler if you all had wings…”

“Ah, about that, Genesis…”

While Angeal briefed Genesis on the presumed danger of their extra limbs, Sephiroth proceeded.

“This means the only source of vehicles around is Shinra itself.”

“One of these helicopters would be a blast,” Zack agreed, and Cloud saw Tifa gape at their craziness.

“Please don’t tell me we are going to attack Shinra to steal a helicopter,” she muttered.

She had apparently learned better than to outright tell them what was and wasn’t possible, though.

“That would mean going back to Banora,” Rain said. “The jungle is too impracticable for vehicles, they probably left them there.”

“There’ll be soldiers looking for us on the way there, right?” Cloud asked, a little sad.

He had been one of those people not too long ago, and having to fight them still felt unfair.

“Most probably,” Sephiroth answered. “They’ll certainly have brought Turks in, too. Valentine, you and I will scout ahead. We’ll search for the best route and dispose of opposition if we have no other choice. Stealth is preferable. Angeal, you are in charge here.”

Cloud distinctly saw Rain twitch, as if he was offended that Sephiroth had taken charge. He visibly restrained himself, though, and Sephiroth and Vincent were soon gone. There was a fierce frown on Rain’s face, and Cloud couldn’t even begin to understand what was going on in his head. More than ever, he missed the special connection he had had with his brother until not so long ago.

“You alright?” he whispered.

Before Rain could even consider answering, Angeal said:

“Let’s all keep as silent as possible from now on.”

 

* * *

 

Shinra _had_ brought Turks in… And since apparently, Turks were smarter than the average infantryman, going after the helicopters meant their motley group fell right into their trap.

They were surrounded, their backs to the gaping pit into the Lifestream that was all that remained of Banora. Tifa had pushed Aerith behind her, Cloud and Zack had taken their stances right before the girls and Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis and Rain formed their first line of defence, Vincent right behind them, his weapon trained on Tseng.

“Must you make this so difficult?” the Turk was saying.

“We may fall today, Tseng, but not without taking most of Shinra’s forces with us,” Sephiroth answered. “I have no problem fighting you, but I doubt this is what you want.”

Tseng sighed.

“Which is why I have to ask: must you really make this so difficult? We can work something out. The president would very much like you back.”

“As what, lab rats?” Zack called out, using Angeal’s words from seemingly so long ago.

“You are a symbol of Shinra, Sephiroth,” Tseng continued like he hadn’t been interrupted. “We have been trying to cover for your absence, but it’s getting increasingly hard. Terrorist groups seem to raise their heads left and right, suddenly less afraid of Shinra’s power. We have been fighting them back, of course, but it’s getting tedious.”

“I notice you have next to no SOLDIERs with you,” Sephiroth said with a nonchalant glance around. “Did you maybe doubt they’d stay loyal against all four of their First Class officers?”

“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”

Tseng began unhurriedly pacing, not even looking at them. Cloud decided watching Sephiroth and him clash was an exercise in psychological warfare.

“Shinra is ready to take you back. You, Angeal and Zack; and since Genesis’ degradation seems resolved, I am sure I could get an agreement for him too.”

Next to Cloud, Zack snorted.

“Man, how desperate are you guys?” he muttered.

He hadn’t meant to be overheard, but Tseng stopped and looked at him.

“How desperate are _you_? Poor Aerith is your girlfriend, is she not? Is a life as a fugitive really what you want for her?”

Zack snarled, furious.

“You bastard…!”

“Don’t be mistaken: you are the one who got her involved. She was safe in Midgar, we Turks made certain of that. I don’t know how you got her away from our surveillance, but it wasn’t your brightest idea.”

“Because leaving her where monsters like Hojo or Hollander could find her and whisk her away was better?” Zack yelled.

“I see you have another civilian with you, too,” Tseng continued, unperturbed. “You truly are careless.”

Cloud sneaked a quick glance over his shoulder at Tifa, heart beating fast. Her face had hardened and she had her fists raised before her mouth, resolve painted in every line of her body. Even now, when they had been clashing so much over Rain, she was important to him. If only he hadn’t asked Rain to leave that letter for her!

“We can propose an amnesty for everyone, especially the girls. They’ll be brought in Shinra to ensure that they won’t use whatever knowledge they acquired at your sides against the company, but they’ll be out of danger and we’ll be sure to find them a job. Your two other… friends, as well.”

He sneaked a curious glance at Vincent and Rain, who both seemed to intrigue him.

“And then what?” Sephiroth asked, his bearing royal. “Brainwashing, scientific experiments? Assassinations in the dead of the night? The president is too paranoid to trust loose elements in his company. This offer isn’t looking very appealing, Tseng.”

Tseng sighed with a hint of annoyance. Cloud could have been mistaken, but he thought he saw sadness in his eyes, too.

“Well, at least I tried.”

A gunshot rang and there was a high-pitched, distinctly feminine scream. Cloud turned back, heart in his throat, to see Tifa crumple to the ground.

“Tifa!” he screamed, his panicked voice merging with Aerith’s.

Zack jumped behind his girlfriend while Cloud collapsed to his knees and frantically searched for a pulse.

“Snipers on the other side of the rift!” Zack shouted.

He held his broadsword vertically before him as partial protection and his eyes searched the shadows under the trees some hundred of yards away. Cloud could have cried in relief when he found Tifa’s pulse, weak but there. A pool of blood was forming under her shoulder and she was unconscious. Nearly as pale as her friend, Aerith was already gripping the Restore Materia Angeal had given her just the day before when he had seen her helping Cloud.

“So this is your answer?” Sephiroth growled, furious.

Tseng seemed unmoved by his anger.

“We have concealed snipers all around the place, too far for you to take them down as easily as you did yesterday. Some of you SOLDIERs may escape from the battle, but as for the four civilians and Strife, I very much doubt it. This is your choice.”

Cloud saw Rain reflexively glance back at him. Tseng was miscalculating, that much Cloud knew. Rain had definitely as much of a survival chance as Sephiroth, if not more since nobody would expect his skills, and Vincent had a good shot at getting out as well. But it was easy to see in his brother’s wide eyes: he had no intention of getting out without Cloud or the girls. Zack and Angeal wouldn’t sacrifice them either.

The steady beat of helicopters approaching made Cloud lift his head in desperation. Reinforcements, again? But he caught a faint frown on Tseng’s face before the Turk returned to his blank expression. He wordlessly held a hand out and one of the Turks at his side gave him an earpiece.

Before Cloud could get his hopes up about some unexpected help, two pairs of helicopters appeared above the trees. A large metallic crate was suspended beneath each of the tandems; blades strained to keep their loads in the air.

“What is…?” Tseng began, now really frowning.

Angeal, Genesis, Sephiroth and Rain all simultaneously flinched.

The bottom of the crates opened and two large masses fell straight out, slamming to the ground and flattening half a dozen infantrymen in smears of blood. Tseng stumbled back, his composure broken before the two ugly creatures getting to their feet and scrutinizing their surroundings with beady and glowing green eyes.

“What is the meaning of this?” he yelled into the earpiece. “Give me your clearance!”

The monsters gave twin screams of defiance and stomped toward the rift, offhandedly killing any soldiers on their path.

“Get away!” Cissnei the Turk was screaming to the infantry, without much success in the sudden chaos. “Regroup at the tree-line!”

Tseng was heatedly arguing with the pilots of the helicopters, but Cloud wasn’t hearing him anymore. He was more preoccupied with the fact that all four men in their first line of defence were visibly shaking and unsteady on their feet.

“What are these things?” Genesis yelled, panting.

From the harnesses around the beasts’ heads came a contemptuous voice.

“Oh, so you managed to repair this one? No matter, Hollander’s failures are not worth my time. Now, Sephiroth, you will cease resisting me!”

“Hojo,” Sephiroth growled, “how many of these abominations are you playing with?”

“As many as are necessary to bring you back. Maimer, Killer, attack!”

The creatures were nearly three times as tall as him. Cloud didn’t hesitate. Drawing his sword, he screamed a battle cry and forged into the fray. Zack’s voice joined his and Vincent’s very last shot rang before he threw his rifle away and charged with his clawed hand. He saw Angeal drag a stumbling Genesis away from an attack and lost sight of Rain and Sephiroth.

Before long, Cloud lost himself in the rhythm of battle. As non-enhanced as he was, he was desperately struggling to get the monsters’ attention away from the other fighters to give them openings, slipping in pathetically useless attacks and barely escaping deadly claws.

He wasn’t quick enough in evading a tail and went flying. He hit the dirt hard. He fought to get back to his feet, clutching at his ribs and his re-opened wound. A Cure spell washed over him and a helping hand appeared in his eyesight. He followed it to Tseng’s face and gaped. The Turk looked livid.

“I don’t care if the Scientific Division really got clearance for this,” he ground out. “These monsters just cost us nearly a hundred men. Get up.”

Cloud closed his mouth, solemnly nodded his thanks and grasped the outstretched hand.

There were only six Turks on the field, but their help made a huge difference in the fight. They all swarmed around one of the beasts despite Hojo’s threats and enraged rants, and before long it fell to its knees and gave a last scream of agony.

Unfortunately, this scream found an echo in its partner. The second monster screeched and fell in a bottomless fury. Its green eyes flashed red and it rose on its hind legs, unleashing a series of devastating attacks on its own assailants. Vincent nimbly leapt away, but under the effect of the J cells’, Sephiroth tripped and collapsed, blood leaking from large gashes across his chest.

It would have been okay since he was already struggling to stand up, but the creature had zoned in on him and, despite Hojo’s panicked imprecations, raised a large paw to finish him off. There was a universal scream from nearly every soul in the field, Turks included, and Cloud felt his own vocal chords strain in his desperation.

A metallic clang rang out.

Rain strained to remain upright. One of the large claws had speared right through his thigh and huge cracks were appearing in his sword where he had just managed to raise it to protect his vital points. Shielded behind him, Sephiroth seemed stunned in immobility. Blue light began to lift from Rain’s body and Cloud felt a relieved smile bloom on his lips. Rain’s Limit Break would surely finish this beast!

Then the monster’s other paw slammed in his brother’s body.

It had just been a swat, meant to blow that pest away from the creature’s true target. It would have been okay.

But Rain went flying towards the rift, high over Aerith’s horrified eyes, the unconscious form of Tifa, then the cliff side. He disappeared in the green glow of the Lifestream.

There was a stunned silence. Or maybe it was just Cloud. Maybe something in him had broken and his brain was stuck with just that: the sight of the pit that had swallowed his brother, and silence when he should have been hearing his voice.

But then there was a roar.

This voice was human, but not by much, and born from so much fury Cloud had to look back. Sephiroth was standing, barely visible through the blue haze surrounding him and the nearby rocks flowing upwards from the force of his energy. He took a single step forward and Masamune flew in an arc so powerful it left an aftershock of blinding light that felt, for a moment, like the sun had exploded right here, on the outskirts of Banora’s remains.

The Supernova Limit Break, Sephiroth’s most devastating attack.

When the light faded and Cloud could blink the last burning spots from his eyes, Sephiroth was standing over the two neat halves of the monster’s body, shoulders heaving with his every breath.

Two silent seconds passed, then Tseng cleared his throat.

“Good job,” he said in a stern voice, trying to pretend he was unaffected. “I am sorry for your loss…”

Sephiroth veered on them. Suddenly it became obvious that it was not exertion that had him gasping for breath. His pupils were so contracted there was barely a vertical slit of black left in the seething green of his eyes. He was deathly pale, and his face was contracted in boundless rage.

Cloud found himself terrified of him.

“That man,” he growled in a low, simmering voice, which rose in volume until it was a shout, “is not escaping me so easily!”

And before anyone could stop him, he rushed to the cliff and launched himself off of it in a flawless swan dive.

“Sephiroth, _no_!” Genesis screamed, rushing to the rift like everyone else.

They saw him get swallowed by the surface of the Lifestream and gaped, not a single one of them able to believe what had happened. And then Aerith shouldered past Tseng as if to take a look herself. She took a deep breath, and stepped off the cliff.

Zack’s scream was bone-chilling.

She fell swiftly, her body vertical like a dancer’s, arms stiff against her sides. And she, too, disappeared. Zack collapsed to his knees.

“What… what the hell just happened?” Cissnei asked in a low, horrified whisper.

 

* * *

 

Sephiroth regained consciousness in a sea of darkness.

He took a moment to lie motionless, breathing slowly, trying to assert his condition and his surroundings. The wounds on his chest had disappeared. How? Although there seemed to be no threat around him, it was difficult to be certain of it. The last thing he could remember was sinking in the Lifestream and the unbearable burn of liquid Mako on his skin. What was this place?

He climbed slowly to his feet, his mind playing with some theories. He heard whispers.

“Hello?” he called in the darkness.

Although there was no direct answer, the whispers rose in volume.

“The Calamity’s son,” they hissed.

“Her cells, her hideous, corrupted cells…”

“Her mind, her will, her hand…”

Sephiroth frowned, not liking what he was hearing.

“I am no one’s hand,” he claimed, “and son of no Calamity.”

It felt like being stabbed between the eyes. He hissed under the onslaught of a vicious headache as the whispers grew harsher.

“Her cells!”

“Too close to the Envoy… Tried to take him away…”

“Dangerous dangerous dangerous,” someone chanted.

“I am only a danger to what threatens me!” Sephiroth angrily retorted.

He had the uncanny feeling of being up against beings that had nothing to fear from him, but he still refused to back down or act coy. His pride was still whole and healthy and he wouldn’t bow before disembodied voices!

As a result of his insolence, the headache grew worse and each voice felt like it was trying to beam directly into his mind, creating a cacophony that made it impossible to even _think_.

“Go _away_!” he yelled.

And then they did.

He lifted his head, startled, only now noticing the gentle hand that had settled on his arm.

“Miss Gainsborough?…”

“Aerith is fine,” she said, smiling sweetly.

“How… Are you really here?”

Or was she merely an illusion of this timeless, spaceless place?

“Yes. I jumped after you. I could faintly hear the voices of the Lifestream, so I figured if anyone could help you bring Rain back, it’d be me.”

Sephiroth nodded, his composure regained.

“I see. Thank you. I appreciate it.”

“Well, I mainly did it for Rain,” she giggled, joining her hands behind her back. “But I wouldn’t have been brave enough to jump alone, so… thank _you_.”

He smiled back, amused, and glanced around him. The void was still just as void and black, but the voices seemed completely gone.

“You chased them away?”

Aerith shrugged, embarrassed.

“I asked them to leave you alone. The Lifestream doesn’t like you much.”

“Because I am “the Calamity’s son”?” he suggested.

“Well… From what I heard of Rain’s story about you…”

“Yes. “The Calamity” is the Planet’s name for Jenova, isn’t it?”

“How did you know?” she asked, surprised.

“I guessed. But what is the Envoy?”

Aerith looked troubled.

“The Envoy? I don’t know. Did the spirits say that?”

Sephiroth shrugged.

“If you are at a loss, let’s forget about it for now. How do we find Rain?”

“Well… It’s my first time doing this kind of things too, so… I guess we call him?”

It seemed just as good a method as any.

“Rain!” Sephiroth called in the nothingness. “Can you hear me? You are not bailing so easily on giving me some answers!”

Aerith actually giggled at him, before she too shouted:

“Rain, we came looking for you! Where are you?”

They took turns shouting his name. When there was no reaction, they exchanged a troubled glance… and then the ground dropped from beneath their feet. Aerith gave a startled cry and Sephiroth just managed to catch her hand so they wouldn’t get separated.

Wind whispered in their ears and faint, confused images emerged from the darkness. A stormy sky, blue eyes, a mountain on a clear day, a sinister mansion, a deserted factory… With a start, Sephiroth recognized the dark alley that came next as the one where he had fought Angeal. And then came a close shot of his own cat-like glowing eyes. Encouraged, he called out once more:

“Rain!”

The images distorted like they had been nothing more than reflections on the surface of a pond he had just thrown a stone in. From nowhere came a feeling of _wrongness_. Aerith gasped.

“It’s not this name we’re supposed to use!”

“What?”

“I don’t know, it’s just an impression I got! Is Rain a nickname?”

Sephiroth frowned. A nickname? An alias, more likely. But there was no way to guess the man’s real name, since he insisted on keeping his damned secrets. If they needed something that rang true within Rain… Strife was the only thing he knew for sure to be precious to him.

“Don’t you want to see Cloud again? He’s your family!” he yelled as a shot in the dark.

The void disappeared.

Abruptly, they were no longer free-falling. They were standing in the middle of a town, and it was burning.


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter corrected on 11/14/15.

“We have to go,” Tseng was saying. “Our official report will state that us Turks were weakened by fighting the out of control monsters of the Scientific Division, and the rest of you took advantage to escape with one of the Security Department transport helicopters.”

Angeal tried to find it in himself to be surprised and grateful. Tseng was taking a lot of risks for them when he really didn’t owe them anything.

“Thank you. That’s very generous of you.”

“Yes, well…” Tseng said with a bitter quirk of the mouth. “It’s not like we’ll find enough survivors amongst the troops to man all the trucks and helicopters anyway.”

Angeal wordlessly nodded. Tseng stared at him and was understanding enough to not take offence at his silence. He held up a hand.

“Good luck. I am… I am truly sorry for your losses.”

Angeal shook his hand, not trusting his voice.

A third of their entire group of misfits was just… gone. Cloud and Zack were shell-shocked and even Genesis seemed unable to believe that Sephiroth, their friend, their rival, the larger-than-life figure that had always loomed over them, had just disappeared forever. The Lockhart girl was still unconscious, and though Aerith had managed to stop the bleeding before she… fell… there was no guaranteeing her condition was stable.

Valentine wouldn’t step forward to carry them to safety. He wasn’t a leader. Angeal took a deep breath. He had to carry on. He had to, for everyone’s sake.

“Thank you,” he managed to say. “We’ll be gone as soon as possible.”

It was necessary, or the Turks’ lie would never hold. Tseng dipped his chin in acknowledgement and turned away to rally his Turks. The red-haired woman, Cissnei, was sadly staring at Zack, but she lowered her head and joined her colleagues.

Angeal turned to find Valentine by his side. Rain’s accomplice was more sombre than ever, his eyes tight with his own pain. Angeal didn’t pretend to understand what had made him join Rain or what had seemed to fascinate him in Sephiroth, but it just served to prove that not a single one of them had escaped this day unscathed.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get everyone in one of the helicopters.”

Vincent silently nodded and went to gather Tifa’s limp body. Angeal approached the three other men, all gazing down to the Lifestream in various states of shock. He touched Genesis’ shoulder. His friend seemed to draw himself out from some kind of morbid trance to look at him.

“We need to leave, Gen,” Angeal whispered, letting him see the grief in his eyes.

Genesis’ shoulders heaved under the strength of his sigh. He shook his head, bewildered.

“I can’t believe… But you’re right. Of course.”

Angeal gently took Zack’s arm. His protégé came without resistance, although he kept staring at the gently glowing stream beneath their feet.

“Strife,” Angeal called. “Come on, we have to go.”

 

* * *

 

Aerith gasped and clutched Sephiroth’s arm.

“What is this place?” she asked in a shaky voice.

Sephiroth doubted illusions of flames could harm them in the Lifestream, but they still felt the heat of the fire, heard its roars. There were screams, too; people were dying in these buildings. What was going on?

“Sephiroth!!”

Sephiroth turned, startled. The one who had yelled his name was apparently a young Shinra infantryman, his face hidden by the helmet. He had appeared from the ruins of a collapsing house and his voice was heavy with tears and anger. He was not facing Sephiroth, though. Instead, he was looking at…

Sephiroth gaped. Was that…?

“Is that you, Sephiroth?” Aerith whispered, disbelieving.

Indeed, there was someone looking very much like Sephiroth in the middle of the burning city. In fact, as Sephiroth looked at his copy’s raised arm and spotted the active Materia in Masamune’s handle, he realized he was _the one setting the city aflame_.

“What…” he started, feeling confused and somewhat insulted.

“My village, my family… What did you do?” the Shinra soldier screamed to the doppelganger, rushing him with his sword drawn. “Why!”

Sephiroth’s twin barely turned, his face a mask of detachment and indifference. In a flash of movement, the trooper crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and the scene slowly faded away. Lost in his surprise, Sephiroth only then became aware that Aerith had let go of him. She had drawn back and was looking at him with fearful eyes.

“Did you… did you really?” she whispered, appalled.

“No,” he rebuked. “I never burned any town, not even in Wutai. I had no reason to slaughter civilians like this. This never happened.”

“Oh,” she sighed in relief. “Then what—”

Their surroundings came back, but this time it was a dark and strange room, filled with metal and artificial lights. The same infantryman as before was standing at the room’s threshold, a very familiar sword sticking straight out of the floor next to him.

“The Buster Sword?” Sephiroth whispered.

“Sephiroth, look!”

On a higher platform on the other side of the room, Sephiroth’s double stood before a tall glass cylinder. Inside of it was…

Sephiroth flinched.

“Is that…”

“Jenova!” Aerith said. “It’s got to be!”

Yes, it had to be her. Although the creature only looked partly human and he could see her glowing eyes from twenty feet away, her face was more ethereally beautiful than he had been prepared for, and her hair… silver, just like Sephiroth’s…

As they watched, the trooper picked up the sword and charged Sephiroth’s copy. Sephiroth thought surely he had no chance of attacking him unaware, but his doppelganger seemed in such a deep contemplation of the creature behind the glass that he heard and suspected nothing before the Buster Sword slid through his ribcage. Sephiroth reflexively flinched.

The trooper drew his weapon back and Sephiroth’s twin collapsed to the ground. The young man was breathing hard, and the Buster Sword had begun to shake in his grip. He turned his back to his opponent and lifted his free hand to get rid of his helmet.

Sephiroth heard Aerith gasp. He himself could only stare, uncomprehending, at the pain-stricken face of Cloud Strife. What in the world…?

“Wh… what is this?” Aerith whispered. “A dream? A nightmare? Why would the Lifestream be showing us this?”

As Strife was passing them as if they were not here, Sephiroth dived deep into his blue eyes. These eyes looked so familiar. Still a little too young, their shape not exactly right yet, the grief and the grim determination too raw and new, but…

“It’s a memory,” he breathed.

He didn’t get it. He didn’t understand, but he knew in his heart that he was right. This was a memory… Rain’s memory.

On a hunch, he tilted his head back and shouted:

“Cloud Strife! We came for you!”

The metallic room instantly faded back into darkness.

“What do you want?”

This cold, no-nonsense voice. Before this moment, Sephiroth hadn’t realized how much he had feared to never hear it again. They turned around, and there was Rain.

“Rain! So this is where you went,” Aerith said, delighted. “We were looking for you.”

Although he usually had an obvious soft spot for the girl, Rain glanced away. He seemed uninjured, but his unwelcoming frown didn’t lighten.

“Go back.”

He made as if to walk away.

“Wait a minute!” Sephiroth protested, leaping forward to catch his shoulder. “What do you think you are doing?”

Rain hissed and tried in vain to escape his grip.

“You never know when to leave well enough alone, do you? You always have to pry and pry and pry.”

“I wouldn’t have to if you were a little more forthcoming with your information.”

“I don’t owe you my whole life!” Rain shouted in his face, and Sephiroth’s eyes widened in surprise. It was clearly a sore point for the man. “Let go!”

“Rain…” Aerith begged, wounded. “Why don’t you want to come back with us? What’s going on?”

Rain froze, tense as a board under Sephiroth’s hand. He carefully didn’t look at Aerith, instead presenting her with his back.

“You lot don’t need me anymore. I did what I had to do, and I have messed up enough doing that.”

“So what, you are just giving up?” Sephiroth challenged.

“I shouldn’t even have been here in the first place,” Rain hissed. “I’m just trying to get some balance back into this mess.”

“By fleeing from it?”

“I told you, I _shouldn’t be here_.”

Despite his struggles, Sephiroth abruptly shifted them to grasp both of Rain’s shoulders so that he could look him in the eyes.

“Well, it’s a bit late to think of that. Because you have already changed _everything_ , every single life you have touched, and I refuse to let you get away with not dealing with the consequences.”

“I am only making things worse!”

“ _No_ ,” Sephiroth all but barked at him, contemptuous. “You are making mistakes, just like the rest of us. Only you have just now understood the price there is to pay for them and you are running away like a pathetic, scared little boy. Get a grip!”

Rain froze. There was something raw and afraid in the stare he was fixing on him.

“Rain,” Aerith gently said. “Please. We all want you to come back. Cloud would be devastated if you disappeared. Zack likes you, too, even though he always says you are too serious. Vincent is your friend, is he not? And Tifa, even though she’s always trying to blame you, I know she’s just scared and looking for a scapegoat; she really respects you.”

She set a gentle hand against Rain’s shoulder blade, and Sephiroth felt him flinch.

“And me, I trust you. From the moment we met, I felt like I could trust you. You are one of the main reasons I can still feel safe with everyone after everything that happened. Please, Rain…”

Rain closed his eyes, every line of his face and body pulled taut. On an impulse, Sephiroth slid a hand to the back of his head. He tangled his gloved fingers in the thick blond hair and tugged so Rain would look at him.

“I am not giving you a choice. You are coming back with me,” he proclaimed.

For a while, it seemed like his close contact and assertiveness would only succeed in pushing the man away. But after a tense moment of uncertainty, Rain slowly relaxed and produced a weary chuckle.

“I can’t believe you. You’re the worst control freak ever…”

Despite his words, he bowed his head in something like acceptance.

 

* * *

 

Cloud Strife absolutely refused to move. He was stubbornly squatting at the cliff’s edge, glaring at the Lifestream as if daring it not to grant his wish.

“Strife!” Angeal barked, losing patience. “You are putting all of us in danger!”

“Then go without me,” he yelled back. “I don’t care! Rain has done the craziest things before. We found him in a Mako crystal! I refuse to believe this would kill him!”

“Even so, the current will have long since drawn them away. Staying here is useless.”

Angeal stumbled when Genesis shouldered past him. His friend marched with long and angry strides to Cloud, his red leather coat blowing dramatically behind him. He forced the young man to his feet and wrenched his arms behind his back despite his struggles and protests.

“Genesis!” Angeal said, appalled.

“I’ve heard quite enough of this temper tantrum,” the SOLDIER growled. “You are not the only one who lost someone today. Yet grief will not prevent me from smacking some sense into your thick skull if you persist in your folly.”

Cloud squinted against his tears and his jaw contracted, but he let himself be pushed and pulled toward the helicopter from which Zack was sadly staring at him.

“Wait!”

For a moment, Angeal wondered who had said that. The voice was unfamiliar to him. It took him a whole second to understand that it had been Vincent who had shouted, and he felt dread well up. Valentine barely talked on most days, let alone yelled. What in the world—

He whirled around and found the ex-Turk bent over the edge of the cliff, eyes intent on something below. Cloud struggled out of Genesis’ grip like a man possessed, but truth be told they were all already rushing to the rift. Angeal heard her before he saw her.

“Hey!”

A distant, but feminine and cheery voice. At the foot of the cliff, Aerith was happily waving at them. She kneeled on an outcrop, soaping wet. She seemed to be struggling to pull two figures, unconscious and much larger than her, out of the Lifestream’s current.

“Holy shit,” Genesis said, uncharacteristically vulgar.

Angeal found he couldn’t agree more.

 

* * *

 

Cloud “Rain” Strife gradually regained consciousness. His thoughts were slow and muddled. He itched everywhere, and his skin felt hot and too tight. He realized he recognized the symptoms.

Ugh. Had he fallen in the Lifestream, _again_?

The thought made the memories rush back and he shuddered. Yes. Yes, he had.

He breathed deeper and opened his eyes, squinting against the blinding daylight. The air caught in his raw throat and tore a cough from him. He propped himself up on one elbow. He was lying under warm sheets in a comfortable single bed. Across from the small and homey room, another bed lay empty under a chaotic heap of blankets. He was alone.

A glass of water had been left on the bedside table. He gratefully downed it. He made to swing his legs from the mattress and hissed with pain. He glanced down to find he had been stripped to his underwear and his left thigh was wrapped in a thick bandage. Great.

He got up more cautiously. His clothes waited on a nearby chair. He got dressed, noticing they had even been cleaned and patched up.

At this point, he felt fairly confident that this was friendly territory, but he remained wary. The view from the window was swallowed by tall trees and he had no idea where he was. He opened the door slowly and slid in the corridor without a sound. From somewhere below, he could hear voices. He recognized first Zack’s, then Cloud’s. They sounded carefree. He relaxed.

He found the stairs and limped down. He wasn’t really trying to be silent, and before long, he heard a chair scraping against the floor and someone running. Cloud appeared at the foot of the stairs, his face lit with happiness.

“Rain! You’re awake!”

He smiled at him.

“Hey.”

Cloud beamed.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up. Sephiroth got up just a little while ago and we were making sure he was okay.”

Zack popped in from a nearby doorway and smiled at Rain.

“Hey buddy. Come in and eat something!”

He nodded and followed him, Cloud close behind. The living room he entered was of average size, but it felt a bit cramped given how many people were present. Tifa was half-lying on the couch, her right arm in a sling and a scowl on her pale and pinched face. Aerith was taking what little space was left beside her friend; she perked up and waved at Rain when he came in. Genesis lounged in one of the armchairs, his attention glued to the TV tuned to some news station. Vincent stood beside one of the windows, arms crossed around his weapon, and Sephiroth and Angeal sat at a round table that probably couldn’t fit more than four persons.

Sephiroth’s eyes were on Rain as soon as he left the corridor. Instead of his usual leathers, the man was clad in a dark grey turtleneck and some sensible black pants. His expression was blank and he didn’t say anything, but Rain found himself faltering under the weight of his stare. Shame built up in him. He averted his eyes.

Cloud had already scurried away to a backroom that was probably the kitchen and Zack waved Rain towards a chair.

“C’mon, sit. Cloud’ll be back in a sec’ with some food. You guys must be hungry as hell, you were unconscious for a whole day! Aerith was fine, though. But, uh… I guess the usual rules don’t apply to her.”

Zack scratched the back of his head and gave a baffled look to his girlfriend who smiled, amused. Rain reluctantly sat at the small table. Whether out of mercy or loss of interest, Sephiroth finally turned away from him.

“What’s our situation?” he asked Angeal.

“We are on the island southwest of the Eastern Continent,” his friend answered. “The land is mostly uninhabited with only a small village near the coast. It serves as something of a tourist spot during the summer, but with the cold season beginning to settle in, we were able to rent this place. It’s deep in the woods and we managed to hide the helicopter nearby.”

“And it’s got hot water and electricity!” Zack gushed with overly bright eyes. “Oh, technology, how I have missed you!”

He threw his arms around the TV set. Aerith and Tifa laughed at him, the martial artist cheering up some despite her wound. Rain’s lips twitched up.

“Move, Puppy,” Genesis drawled with a tired smirk. “Your wagging tail is hiding the screen.”

“Hey!”

Cloud chose this moment to reappear. He was holding two plates overflowing with food and Rain suddenly realized Zack had been right: he was ravenous.

“It’s only leftovers,” Cloud apologized.

“You are a godsend,” he blurted out, more spontaneous than he was used to.

Cloud blushed happily, and even more so when Sephiroth thanked him. They dug in while Angeal updated them on what had happened with the Turks at Banora, then on the supplies they had managed to acquire since then, such as new bullets for Vincent, bandages and the like. Tifa’s shoulder would be fine, though she was looking at close to a week of recovery even with the use of a Materia. Her head rolled around the couch cushions and she groaned at the reminder.

“My dominant arm!” she bemoaned.

“So we’ve heard,” Genesis waspishly said, ignoring her glare. “Multiple times.”

“What are the news, Genesis?”

Sephiroth’s voice was perfectly neutral, as was his face. Genesis glanced at him in surprise, as if unsure of how to react to Sephiroth addressing him directly. Angeal was looking between them, hope and nostalgia struggling not to show in his eyes. Genesis tried for casual.

“Nothing unexpected, I suppose. You and Zack have now been officially branded traitors to Shinra. The company is desperately trying to salvage some of its image by promoting some kind of big reality show where SOLDIERs get to compete like dogs in a pit to win a spot in the next First Class. Can you believe it?” he sneered, disgusted.

Vincent added:

“There are some rumours of unrest, explosions in remote locations and terrorist attacks on supply convoys. But it’s hard to know how much is being filtered through Shinra’s propaganda.”

Rain nodded, grim. For all they knew, Shinra Inc. could be in a desperate position and covering as much of the damage as possible so other opponents wouldn’t deem it fit to attack while they were at their most vulnerable. He lowered his eyes to his half-empty plate. He couldn’t decide what would be the better news. Shinra deserved to fall, but if this dissolved into some sort of civil war, there would be a lot of casualties and the political void left by the company would attract power-hungry figures like flies.

How was he supposed to know what would be best? He wasn’t a politician. Abruptly, he missed Reeve.

No. He missed all his friends, with an almost physical ache that pulled at his heart. He sighed and tiredly rubbed his face. The grief wasn’t as overwhelming as it had once been, dulled, ironically enough, by time, but he would never forget. He missed the Seventh Heaven, the kids. He missed Cid and Barret’s loud voices, Yuffie’s cheekiness, Nanaki’s wisdom.

Somehow, he even missed Vincent and Tifa. How strange was it to feel such a thing, when they were right here in the room with him?

But no, even as he looked up, he recognized his mistake. He glanced at Vincent, the man colder and more distant than he had known him to be in years. There was no trace of the unspoken understanding that should have existed between them, born from similar burdens and loaded silences. Then he looked at Tifa, at the petulant frown on her young face. This fifteen-year-old teenager, how could he ever compare her to the mature woman who had been his closest friend… even more than this for a while? Although Tifa had always been stubborn, she wasn’t this demanding, quick-tempered girl any more than “Rain” was the friendly and earnest boy listening to his elders’ conversation from his spot near the table.

He bowed his head. Fresh grief lanced through him. He had to stop seeing these people as warped versions of those he had once known and loved. All of his friends… they were gone. Tifa, Vincent, Aerith, and yes, Zack too… They didn’t deserve to be constantly measured against his unreliable memories of the persons they should be to fit in his worldview. They weren’t ghosts. They were their own selves, just like Cloud was… And just like he had gladly taken and kept the mantle of “Rain” to let this precious boy live his life, he had to acknowledge these people’s existence. They were real, flesh and blood. They had dreams, aspirations, loved ones and places to return to.

And they had needs. Right now, even if it killed him a little to admit it… they needed him. He was the only one with answers, the only one who knew everything that was at stake here… and he was the one who had dragged them all in this mess. As such, he had a responsibility to see them safely out the other side of it.

And yet, just yesterday, he had wanted to turn his back on them.

It had seemed like the best solution at the time. He had saved both Angeal and Genesis, and Sephiroth’s discovery of the truth of his birth and nature had come and gone without any major breakdown. Truthfully, he hadn’t expected such a seemingly miraculous outcome. He had been so focused on Sephiroth, so sure that it couldn’t be the end of it, that _something_ was going to push the man off the edge anyway, that he had been completely unprepared when the problem had come from outside. The other shoe _had_ dropped, only in a way he hadn’t foreseen at all.

He had been certain he had gotten rid of the problem on that end—how could he have been so foolish? Sephiroth was a symptom when Jenova had always been the true disease. Which was not to say Sephiroth had ever been an innocent victim; no, he was too strong-willed, too arrogant to have been a mere puppet in Jenova’s grasp. The cruelty, the cunning, the hubris, they had all come from him, of this he had no doubt. But Jenova had both been the trigger and given him the tools. Without her, the Sephiroth he once knew and fought might have walked all his life that fine line between light and darkness: a weapon in Shinra’s hands, a “hero” with the power to change the world and no will to do so, be it for the better or for the worse.

Jenova had always been the beginning, and he had screwed that up. When he had realized it, everything else had seemed to snap into perspective: he had caused all of these people to come together, and now, every last one of them was a fugitive hunted by the company ruling over the entire planet. Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud, even poor Tifa and Aerith… All of their lives would have been vastly different if he hadn’t interfered, or if he had at least done it _better_.

The arrival of those monsters that shouldn’t have existed had felt like the universe trying to tell him that he was done, now. That he had stumbled his way through what he had been sent to do, and that it was time he drew back before he caused even more of a mess. Being flung into the Lifestream had seemed like the perfect cue to take his leave.

Only, however much it cost him to admit it, Sephiroth had been right. He had behaved like a coward.

All that time, he had been acting like a stranger in a world where he didn’t belong. He had known things no one should have known, had acted upon them, trying to “fix” everything the way he would have fixed a problem with Fenrir’s engine. He had kept his distance and tried to observe from afar… but it had only been an illusion, hadn’t it? He was right here, with these people. They accepted him as one of their own, a friend, an ally, even a brother.

He had thought of himself as an anomaly, something to be removed once he had played his part. But he had a place, here. Cloud’s brotherly love, the frightening trust Aerith put in him, Tifa’s glares and pouts, Sephiroth’s unrelenting inquiries… they were all aimed at him. At “Rain”. Not a shadow bound to disappear, but a man whose existence was just as real as the table under his palms.

“Rain?”

The gentle contact of Cloud’s hand on his elbow snapped him back to reality. He sent him a quizzical look. Cloud seemed wryly amused.

“I had kind of wondered if you spent so much time deep in thought because you had nothing else to do at the back of my head, but I see that’s not really the case. You want some more?”

Confused, he glanced down at his plate. He was only half-surprised to find it empty. No, his habit of zoning out hadn’t gotten any better these past few years.

“Thanks,” he murmured, collecting his cutlery for Cloud to take back to the kitchen. “I’m fine.”

Cloud smiled at him before turning away. Rain didn’t miss the way his eyes remained trained on him a bit longer than strictly necessary, as if he was afraid he would disappear as soon as they left him.

He felt a pang of guilt. He had caused this. Cloud had already lost him once, and he knew how grateful he had been to have him back. Yet in all his selfishness, he wouldn’t have hesitated a second to leave him behind… If it hadn’t been for Sephiroth…

He turned to find the man’s vivid green eyes already on him. Once, he would have flinched, but this was quickly growing to be the norm. Sephiroth had finished his own meal and had moved to seat sideways in his chair. His long legs were crossed and Rain could see the peak of his knee above the tabletop. The pose looked completely natural, and yet… not on him. He kept expecting to see a sneer on his face or a bloody Masamune in his gloved hand. His disorientation was only heightened by the casual clothes the man was wearing. Who knew he even owned anything besides black leathers?

Rain rubbed his temple, frustrated. His skin still itched and burned from the Mako, which wasn’t helping his focus. Sephiroth had looked away to continue his conversation with the others. He belatedly tuned in. They were now talking about what to do in the foreseeable future.

“I suggest we stay here as long as possible,” Angeal was saying. “We have all been living in the wild for anything from a few nights to months on end, and these accommodations are probably the nicest we’ll be able to find for a while. We should take the opportunity to rest.”

“And heal,” Aerith chimed in. “Tifa isn’t the only one injured. Cloud, Sephiroth and Rain need a bit of time, too.”

Rain reflexively brushed a hand against his thigh. Of course, Sephiroth had no outward reaction. Gaia forbids he let them remember he was human, too. The thought struck a cord in him and he looked away, frowning.

“It would be prudent to rest for a few days,” Sephiroth agreed. “No more than this, however. We can’t afford to stay too long in one place when we don’t know how Shinra discovered we were near Banora.”

“I trust no one used a Shinra-issued PHS while we were there?” Genesis asked, mulling it over with a frown.

“Nope,” Zack said, and Cloud, back from the kitchen, mutely shook his head.

Sephiroth didn’t even seem to believe the question could be aimed at him. Genesis hummed, but dropped the matter. However, Rain only needed one look at the glint of distrust in his eyes to understand what he was thinking. He shivered.

Genesis suspected there was a traitor among them.

It was a legitimate worry. How else would Shinra have procured their location? And yet, as Rain peered at the people around the room, he found himself unable to believe it.

Vincent and Cloud, he would trust with his life. Zack wouldn’t betray friends, period. Tifa hadn’t even registered on Shinra’s radar before she joined them. Genesis had been half-mad and unable to contact anyone when the attack had started. Sephiroth… For all his faults, Sephiroth wouldn’t bother with such an underhanded scheme. He had left Shinra of his own volition, and Rain couldn’t see him bargaining information for his return. Similarly, Angeal had made it clear he had no intention of going back to the company.

Which only left Aerith. He wanted to dismiss her immediately, but remembered his vow from earlier and struggled to stay unbiased. He didn’t want to think such a thing of her, but she _had_ been under Shinra’s surveillance and the Turks had known she was Zack’s girlfriend. Could they have somehow blackmailed her? But it had taken Vincent’s considerable ruse to sneak her out from under their noses. Wouldn’t they have made it easier for her to join them if they were forcing her to work for Shinra? And more importantly, would someone as sweet and innocent as the Aerith of now be capable of this level of deception, especially with Zack?

No. She would be an open book to Zack and Rain. It just wasn’t in her nature to lie.

Then what… some kind of bug, maybe?

Although no accusation had been made aloud, he hadn’t been the only one to notice Genesis’ scepticism. The girls, Zack and Cloud remained oblivious, but Angeal, Sephiroth and Genesis’ eyes roamed around the room, systematically assessing everyone like he had. Vincent was just glancing between them all, waiting to see how this would play out.

In hindsight, Rain shouldn’t have been surprised when three speculative glares slowly converged on him. But he was, and he blinked, taken aback. Angeal seemed unsure while Sephiroth just looked frustrated, like his stare would make him spill his guts once and for all.

Rain sighed and raised his hands, palms out, in a gesture of irritated acknowledgement. Yes, okay. Maybe from where they were coming, he was the most suspicious of them all.

His reaction caught Cloud’s attention.

“What?” he said, seemingly becoming aware of the tension in one half of the room. “Rain? What’s happening?”

He edged closer, sending hesitant glances to the three SOLDIERs. But he was quick, smarter than Rain remembered being at his age.

“Not this again!” he hissed, suddenly on the defensive. “Rain is not a traitor, damn it!”

This alerted the three remaining clueless people to what was going on and Tifa, Aerith and Zack all turned to them, shocked.

“Then how come we still know nothing of who he is, where he came from and what his goal is?” Angeal challenged. “Why is he so reluctant to talk about it? Even you confessed to not knowing any of it, Cloud.”

“Actually, I know all of that,” Cloud countered to everyone’s surprise, peevishly crossing his arms and glaring at Angeal. “I just respect the fact that telling you should be Rain’s decision.”

And then, in the middle of it all, completely out of the blue, there was this:

“I know your name. I know your real name.”

Sephiroth was looking in Rain’s eyes, with so much intensity he felt for a dizzying, horrifying second like he could see right through him, to all the secrets he had been clinging to with a death grip. To the naked and gruesome truth.

Sephiroth turned to Aerith, freeing him from the spell of his slit pupils, and he tried to remember how to breathe through a rising nausea.

“Don’t we?”

Hesitantly, Aerith nodded.

“The Lifestream… It’s the life blood of the Planet. You can’t possibly lie about something like this in there,” she whispered.

She sent a curious glance to Cloud and Rain realized with a pang that they truly _did_ know. Only now did he begin to contemplate the consequences of what these two had seen in the Lifestream. Sephiroth… Sephiroth had _seen_ Nibelheim. He anxiously searched his face, but the man’s eyes were clear, empty of any trace of hate or madness. They just bored into him, even thirstier for answers than they had been two days before.

Another unexpected voice rang.

“I know it too,” Vincent said.

It earned him a bewildered stare from Rain.

“How could you possibly— I only told you—”

He had only told him—implied, really—that he was from the future. But he cut himself off with a side glance to Cloud. The boy grimaced at him as if in apology. Of course, it would have been obvious to Vincent as soon as he saw him. With a heavy sigh, he conceded defeat.

“Hum… Okaaay,” Zack drawled in helpless perplexity. “Anyone else wanna confess while we’re at it? Am I the only one left out of the loop, or what?”

“No, you’re not,” Tifa muttered irritably. “Do we get to know the big secret?”

“What I don’t know is how,” Sephiroth went on like they hadn’t said anything. “And I believe it’s about time you shared… Cloud Strife.”

He couldn’t help it; he flinched. Zack and Tifa didn’t notice and turned to Cloud, standing behind him. Under their quizzical glances, he blushed. Uncomfortable, he shook his head and pointedly looked at Rain. They followed his eyes, but no comprehension lit their faces.

“What,” Tifa said, voice flat.

He fought to control the panic blooming in him. How had this conversation turned into such a mess?

Over the past few months, he had never once thought about telling these people. There had been no question in his mind that they didn’t need to know anything about him, and that it might even be dangerous to let Sephiroth learn too much. And yet… Yet, didn’t they deserve to know for what cause he had turned all of their lives upside down? Didn’t they deserve to know… that he had done such a crappy job of his mission? That things were slipping through his fingers? If his knowledge of the future couldn’t protect them anymore… shouldn’t he at least give them the tools to protect themselves? And after all… didn’t they deserve to know who this strange man they had been fighting alongside with was?

He sat back in his chair and swallowed the dread. He forcefully reminded himself that he was no shadow.

“Yes,” he confessed, quickly, before he could change his mind. “My name is Cloud Strife.”


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter corrected on 11/14/15.

“What the hell?” Tifa shouted.

She jumped to her feet in indignation, hissing when the movement jostled her shoulder.

“What do you mean, your name is Cloud Strife?” she yelled at him. “You squatted in his head, and now you want to steal his name too?”

“Tifa, calm down,” Cloud implored. “He’s not lying or stealing anything. We really do have the same name.”

“How is that possible?” Zack asked, rubbing the back of his head in perplexity.

Genesis stood up and brushed past him to approach the table, his burning eyes trained on Rain.

“It’s not a coincidence, is it? Two persons with the same name and such a striking resemblance…”

He leaned over him. Rain just stared back.

“A copy?”

He barely held back a flinch. It had been a long time since this word had been flung at him, and yet, he discovered he could still feel the ancient, dull pang of grief and yearning he had fought so hard to bury. He struggled to remain impassive, acutely aware of Sephiroth studying every single one of his reactions from across the small table.

“Of Cloud?” Angeal said, doubtful. “Who would want to clone an unenhanced trooper?”

Rain sighed. They were going to run away with ridiculous theories if he didn’t try to be a little more forthcoming.

“Tifa, come over here. Cloud, give me your right arm.”

Cloud blinked but readily deposited his forearm in his waiting hand. Rain tugged his long sleeve up. Tifa warily came closer. He nodded at her and pointed at a white, faded line that ran from the base of Cloud’s thumb to about an inch above his wrist.

“Recognize this scar?”

She took one look at Cloud’s forearm and her eyebrows furrowed.

“I guess,” she said with false nonchalance. “It’s from that accident back when we were kids, when I fell down the mountain and Cloud tried to catch me. Right? So what?”

Without a word, he turned his wrist and presented the underside of his arm. It was even fainter, so old as to be nearly invisible, but there was no denying the white line on his skin. When he glanced up, he found everyone gathered around, staring at the two arms on the table. If it hadn’t been for Rain’s rougher hand and slightly bulkier muscles, they would have been identical, down to the tone of their light gold skin.

“I’m guessing copies don’t get the original’s scars,” he said.

Genesis drew back, puzzled.

“No… No, they don’t. They only reproduce genetic material.”

Tifa had paled a bit.

“What does that mean?” she growled. “Who are you really?”

“I’m Cloud Strife,” he repeated, retrieving his arm. “Only, not the Cloud Strife you know.”

“Rain and me,” Cloud reluctantly said, “to a certain point… To a certain point, I guess you could say we’re the same person.”

“No way, man,” Zack laughed. “You two are as different as night and day!”

Rain blinked at him.

“Really?…”

“Sure! I mean, no offense but you’re kinda distant, man. Cloud may be a bit shy, but he is much more open than you are! More trusting, too.”

“Oh…”

He looked down, pensive. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Of course he was more jaded than Cloud.

“One can drastically change after traumatic events,” Sephiroth said, echoing his thoughts.

Rain whipped his head up. Sephiroth stared right at him and, for a moment, he felt completely naked before him.

“Like the burning of one’s hometown…”

The words fell from his lips like heavy marbles. He could hear the challenge in them, the relentless thirst for answers. Cloud shifted next to his shoulder, snapping him out of his cold anxiety.

“What does he mean, Rain?” Cloud asked nervously, pleadingly. “Burning… your hometown?”

Rain closed his eyes and swallowed bile. There were plenty of things he hadn’t told Cloud, things he had firmly believed he didn’t need to know. But Nibelheim… Nibelheim was the start of it all, wasn’t it?

“He’s right,” he said, eyes boring in the tabletop. “In my memories… in the end, it all began there. The day Nibelheim burned.”

Cloud and Tifa’s shocked gasps echoed in the room. He didn’t look at them.

“Wh— when did _that_ happen?” Tifa shouted, her voice shaking. “Everyone was… was fine when I…”

He cursed myself. Why did he have to phrase it like that? Before he could move to correct my mistake, Cloud snapped out of his shock and rushed to her. He hugged her and she hid her wet eyes in his chest.

“No, no! Tifa, calm down, please. That’s not what Rain meant. Nibelheim is fine, I promise.”

“But he, he said…”

Cloud shot him a pleading look above his shoulder.

“It won’t burn,” Rain could only say. “I made sure Nibelheim wouldn’t burn, not this time. Tifa, please don’t cry.”

Zack dropped in a series of nervous squats, reminding him that they had an audience.

“I don’t get it,” he confessed. “Nibelheim burned, but it won’t? What?”

He exchanged confused glances with Angeal and Genesis. Sephiroth, however, had gone very still. There was a feverish glint in his eyes.

“You are a time-traveller.”

He claimed it with the certainty of one coming to a long-awaited conclusion. Rain didn’t know whether to be relieved someone had said it for him, or alarmed at how quickly he was catching on. He wordlessly nodded.

The others’ only reaction was Tifa’s outraged splutter, but before long, even that died away to a heavy silence. They were glancing between Cloud and him and down to their forearms, turning all these little bits of information that had previously made no sense in their heads over and over. Cloud remained by Tifa’s side, sadness in his eyes. Vincent stood in a corner of the room, coldly observing them all.

Finally, Zack broke the stillness.

“Uh… guys? Are we… buying that?” he asked with a helpless gesture.

“It’s the only way to explain what Aerith and I saw in the Lifestream,” Sephiroth said.

His voice was calm and matter-of-fact, but his neutral composure was doing a poor job of hiding a fierce curiosity. Aerith nodded to Zack’s questioning look.

“Yes, I believe him too,” she said with uncharacteristic certainty. “From the moment I met him, I knew Rain was special in some way. The Planet… it reacts to him. It _knows_ him. I trust Rain, Zack.”

Genesis had a theatrical sigh and an elaborate shrug.

“Well, if even Sephiroth is on board, we might as well hear the rest of it. ‘ _Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess_ ’, but… how? And why?”

“By what miracle are you here?” Angeal added.

Rain looked down at his hands.

“A… miracle, uh?” he breathed.

If he closed his eyes, he could still see it as if it was happening right in front of him; the end of everything. Already, he could hear the screams of every living and dead souls on the Planet, picture the exact shade of sickly green of the Lifestream as it was ripped from the earth, cracking the ground in apocalyptic destruction and killing billions… and at the centre of it all, these burning eyes where nothing even remotely human remained, taunting him, mocking him with his utter defeat…

He wasn’t sure what a miracle was anymore.

“Are you the Envoy?”

Aerith’s voice jerked him out of his dark memories. The girl was leaning toward him, eyes bright with curiosity.

“… What?”

“Sephiroth said the spirits of the Lifestream mentioned something they called the Envoy,” she cheerfully explained. “Is that you?”

He turned to Sephiroth, incredulous.

“The Lifestream talked to you?”

Sephiroth didn’t look too fond of the remembrance.

“I wouldn’t say ‘talked to’ so much as ‘screamed at’.”

Rain grunted in acknowledgement. He wasn’t surprised, considering the Planet had tried to bring a whole city down on Sephiroth’s head last time he had gotten close to anything she deemed of importance. Conveniently forgetting she also risked crushing said thing of importance.

“Maybe?” he told Aerith, hesitant. “I don’t exactly talk to them on a daily basis… but I guess it would make sense?”

“So the Planet is the one who sent you back, right?” she insisted. “That’s why she recognizes you, why she knows who you are.”

“… I suppose.”

That this Planet knew who he was and where he came from would explain why she reacted so badly to Sephiroth. Rain was pretty sure she shouldn’t have been aware of him as a threat before Nibelheim.

“And that’s why it answered your plea to heal Genesis,” Angeal breathed, astounded. “You have a tie to it!”

“A tie?” he couldn’t help but mutter, bitter. “More like it’s got a leash on me.”

He clenched one fist closed.

“The Planet seems to think I’m her errant boy. When she realized she had no other way out, she dumped me in the past and left me to figure my way out from there. She has a vested interest in my survival. Otherwise, don’t expect miracles. As far as I can tell, her helping Genesis just because I asked was a complete whim.”

“Dude, the _Planet_ sent you back?” Zack exclaimed. “Why? What the hell is that supposed to mean, ‘no other way out’?”

He kept silent for a moment, frowning. He didn’t know how much he could afford to tell. How much he should…

“The Planet… the Planet was dying,” he finally said. “She had had safeguards, plenty of them, to prevent her destruction, but by the time it happened they were all unusable.”

The WEAPONs, Chaos and Omega, they had all been gone by the time the end had come. Omega should have made it possible to relocate the Planet’s living essence somewhere else in the universe, but to do so, Chaos would have had to kill every living being on the surface. They hadn’t wanted that. To them, Chaos had been just as much the enemy as Jenova. Rain still didn’t believe they had been wrong.

“That makes no sense,” Angeal said. “If the Planet can’t settle her own problems, what could one man do?”

“Unless the source of her problems came from men,” Sephiroth remarked.

Rain glared at him. Since the beginning of this conversation, the man had made it a point to guess at things that made him uncomfortable. If he could deduce so much from what little he was saying, maybe it was time Rain clammed up before that unnervingly brilliant brain took a shot at things he wasn’t ready for him to know.

“Then again, your interventions so far have been awfully focused.”

Rain’s face closed under the shock. Something icy was unravelling in his chest.

“Your point?” he said blankly.

“Well, let’s see. These past few months, you have been spending your time rescuing Angeal, rescuing Genesis, destroying—or trying to destroy—a being that is a threat to all three of us, and otherwise sharing confidential Shinra information with me. Given that the age difference between you and Strife cannot be greater than a decade and a half, which would place the Planet’s end pretty close in time, one would think you would have more pressing matters to attend.”

The atmosphere in the room thickened.

“Which means… what?” Zack prompted, shifting on his feet in discomfort.

“Nothing,” Rain snapped, his eyes boring in Sephiroth’s.

He noticed the others exchange surprised and dismayed glances, taken aback by the uncharacteristic steel in his voice.

“Nothing any of you need to know,” he continued in a tone brooking no argument. “I shared what I did out of good will, because my acts have had a great deal of impact on all your lives and you deserved to know I was responsible for it and why. But I won’t accept you digging for information I’m not prepared to give.”

He stood up and Sephiroth followed suit, livid.

“Now, wait a minute! I think I have a right to—”

“In any case,” he interrupted him in a louder voice than he remembered having used in a very long time.

He looked unflinchingly in Sephiroth’s eyes, the burning mass of emotions that he always managed to light in him spreading like a familiar fire in his veins. Didn’t he get it already? He wouldn’t bully Rain into spilling all of his secrets for him to feast upon. He wouldn’t stand for it.

“In any case, most of what I needed to do has been done. This universe has already diverged a lot from what I knew. What you saw in the Lifestream won’t happen. It’s nothing but memories, now. Your future is your own, and you need to gear up and write it. Don’t use me as an excuse to be lazy.”

Something very rare happened: for a moment, Sephiroth looked floored, unable to believe he was being reprimanded like a disobedient child. It made him look so human, so young and normal, that Rain had to turn away. His usual bundle of hate, grief and despair, he could handle. This new twinge of yearning…

Everyone else was silent, apparently struck speechless by the intensity of their conflict.

“I’m going to take a cold shower,” Rain told Sephiroth, tense. “I suggest you do the same if you want to get rid of the Mako burn.”

He strode out. Nobody made a move to stop him. He was already climbing the stairs when he heard Zack call after him:

“Wait, does that mean that wasn’t your first dive in the Lifestream? What the hell!”

 

* * *

 

When Rain limped back downstairs, feeling better and calmer, the living room was empty save for Cloud and Zack. They turned at his arrival. Cloud offered him a pale, troubled smile and rose to approach him.

“Hey, Rain. Sorry I wasn’t very helpful earlier…”

He shook his head.

“No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have dumped that on you all of a sudden.” He hesitantly carded a hand through his hair, still damp from the shower. “I… didn’t really want you to know about Nibelheim. But Sephiroth…”

Cloud shrugged.

“Well, I shouldn’t have been so shocked anyway. I mean, you told me about the end of the world. What’s one village, uh?”

He smiled crookedly. Rain didn’t call him out on his transparent attempt to appear brave. He tilted his lips up in answer.

“Remember—”

“Our future is our own,” Cloud quipped, grinning now. “It’s ours to build. I know. You’re right.”

Zack came forward, looking at Rain like he would have at a strange alien species.

“So… you’re… uh, Cloud?”

A pang of sadness stabbed Rain through the chest. He grimly pushed it away. He had had months in Cloud’s head to see this precious, precious man alive once more, get reacquainted with him, even learn so much more than he had in the distant past… Cloud was closer to Zack than he remembered ever having been. Meanwhile, he… was just a strange man Zack knew very little about. And it would have to be alright.

He tried to smile, knew the expression fell short.

“Rain is fine. It’s been my name for ten years, now. No need to make it more complicated for everyone.”

“Well, okay, but your real name is Cloud.”

“… Yeah.”

Zack peered closer. Uncomfortable with the scrutiny, Rain looked around.

“Where is everyone?”

“Sephiroth is hogging the downstairs bathroom and the others went outside. The girls shouldn’t be far, Tifa just wanted to sunbathe for a while,” Cloud answered.

He glanced between Zack and Rain in a peculiar way.

“Hey… maybe I should go check on them… since we still don’t know if Shinra can find us here. Be back in a moment, okay?”

“Uh? Hmm…” Rain said, taken aback.

Cloud was already moving to the door. He gave his brother a pointed look and a nudge while passing him, as if trying to tell him something.

“Have fun!” Zack called to him.

Once Cloud was gone, he scratched his head.

“That was quick. What do you suppose that was about?”

Rain shrugged, rather helplessly. Why had Cloud left them alone? He had no idea what to say to this Zack. He was trying his hardest not to compare him to the man in his memories, but it was more difficult with him than with Tifa or Vincent. Zack was just… _Zack_.

And true to form, he didn’t let awkwardness settle between them. He turned back to Rain with a brilliant grin.

“So, Cloud! Did we ever meet, where you come from?”

“Sure. During the Modeoheim mission, too.”

“Yeah? Did we become good friends?”

He shifted, ill at ease.

“I guess…”

Not that good, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it. If he remembered correctly, it had taken a little while for him to come in contact with Zack again after Angeal’s death. In fact, it had come as a surprise when Zack had acted like they were old friends the next time they had met by chance. But even once he had been done grieving, he hadn’t been as close to Rain as this Zack was to the trooper who had saved his mentor’s life.

“Well… time to start again, then!”

“Uh?”

Zack extended a hand to him.

“Hi! I’m Zack Fair. I hope we’ll be friends from now on!”

He stared at him in wonder. This bright smile, this confidence and boundless energy, above all this unquestioning acceptance, he had missed them so much… Despite himself, he felt his eyes start to water. He blinked rapidly, trying to hide how moved he was.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “I’d like that.”

He took his hand. If Zack noticed anything wrong, he said nothing about it, which he was pathetically grateful for.

The sound of a door opening echoed from down the main corridor. Rain tensed, remembering the only person left in the house with Zack and him. Even if Cloud hadn’t told him, he would have recognized that self-assured, purposeful stride. Sephiroth paused for a moment at the living room entrance to observe them. He was back in his leathers and his left hand loosely held Masamune. His hair shone wetly in the light.

“Heya, Sephiroth,” Zack said. “You going out? I think Angeal and Genesis said something about training in the woods.”

Sephiroth glanced at him for a moment before going back to staring at Rain. He stared back, unblinking. Finally, Sephiroth nodded and stepped away without a word. They heard the front door close behind him.

“Man,” Zack sighed, again scratching his head, “after all this time, I still have trouble getting this guy. One thing’s for sure, that’s some tension you two’ve got going!”

“… I need a new sword,” he sourly commented.

 

* * *

 

“I don’t get what’s with men and swords,” Tifa idly commented.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Aerith said. “If someone is going to fight… don’t you think a sword is kind of a noble way to go about it? Guns are so… harsh. So cold. I don’t really like swords, but… they are not so bad.”

“Aren’t you just saying that because your boyfriend has one?” Tifa teased her.

“Well, Cloud uses a sword too,” she giggled back. “Right, Cloud?”

“Yeah,” he smiled. “I know how to use guns, but I don’t like them either. Any idiot can shoot a firearm. Going right up to your enemy with a short-range weapon means you’d better know what you’re fighting for.”

“You can do that without a phallic accessory, though,” Tifa argued, sinking in a fighting stance and raising her valid fist in demonstration.

“Tifa!” Aerith scolded her, torn between laughing and blushing.

Tifa flashed her a smile and tilted her head toward the two SOLDIERs whose training they were watching.

“Well, it’s true! You’ve got to wonder _why_ they need such big swords, unless they’re compensating for something. Don’t you think so, Cloud?”

He reddened and crossed his arms, indignant.

“I don’t really feel comfortable with this conversation.”

Tifa laughed at him. Oh well, better this than her tears.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eyes and turned to see Sephiroth enter the vast clearing where Angeal and Genesis were engaged in friendly sparring. Cloud, Tifa and Aerith had taken position atop a nearby rock outcrop to watch them. Although Tifa was obviously not impressed, Cloud was counting himself fortunate to be able to see the training of such legendary fighters. Sephiroth’s appearance only heightened his interest. Would he join them? Would Cloud actually get the incredible chance to see the three original Firsts compete?

But Angeal and Genesis didn’t seem to notice his arrival and Sephiroth stopped at the limit of the trees. He crossed his arms and just watched them. Cloud couldn’t read the expression on his face. His friends were trading jokes and laughs as they fought. They seemed to be having a lot of fun. Cloud hoped Sephiroth wasn’t feeling left out.

He and his nerves were debating approaching him when he noticed Zack and Rain wandering down the forest path towards them. Zack was chatting away with animated gestures and Rain was listening to him with a content half-smile Cloud decided he very much liked seeing on him.

“Hey guys!” Zack hailed them. “We followed the sweet sound of clanging blades!”

Tifa hmphed at him.

“Are you here to prove your masculinity by swinging oversized weapons around, too?”

Aerith gently elbowed her, her cheeks red, but her eyes shining with laughter. Rain blinked and Zack planted his fists on his hips, confused.

“What?”

“Don’t mind her,” Cloud sighed. “Are you going to train with them?”

The two SOLDIERs had stopped and noticed the newcomers.

“Anyone want to join us?” Angeal yelled across the clearing. “Sephiroth, Zack?”

“Nah, I’m good! You guys keep at it!” Zack retorted, waving his arm to carry the point across.

Sephiroth signalled his refusal with a simple hand gesture. Angeal and Genesis nodded and returned to their mock fight.

“I don’t want to interrupt them,” Zack explained, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck. “Looks like they need the time together, you know?”

Cloud jumped down to join Zack and Rain at the foot of the rocks.

“Yeah,” he agreed quietly. “Angeal and Genesis seem to be doing okay, but I’m a bit worried about Sephiroth. Shouldn’t he want to spend more time with the two of them?”

Zack shrugged.

“I think he and Genesis are still walking on eggshells around each other, if you ask me. Well, they’ll resolve it on their own, I guess. Not much we can do about it.”

He turned to Rain with a grin.

“How about you and I spar, though? You could borrow Cloud’s sword! I’ve kind of wanted to take you on for a while.”

“Zack!” Aerith huffed before Rain could even open his mouth. “Rain is injured and he’s barely woken up.”

“Oh, yeah,” Zack acknowledged guiltily.

Rain sent him a reassuring smile.

“In a few days, all right?”

“Yeah, sure!”

This exchange made Cloud see Sephiroth’s idleness in a new light. Maybe it wasn’t that he didn’t want to join his friends. Maybe he just needed to be careful with his own wounds. Cloud couldn’t see his bandages from this distance, and Sephiroth was so unflappable he made it easy to forget he wasn’t at a hundred percent. Zack ended up drifting over to talk to the man, which relieved Cloud. He didn’t like seeing him alone, but he would have had no idea what to say to him.

Since the girls were chatting together above them, Cloud seized his chance to turn to Rain.

“I’m glad you were able to work things out with Zack.”

Rain nodded, his smile laced with a familiar bittersweet happiness.

“Yes, me too. It feels good to be able to speak with him after all this time…”

“Good!” Cloud whole-heartedly approved. “I wouldn’t have wanted you to butt heads because of a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Rain repeated, clueless.

Cloud blinked at him. Surely Rain had not forgotten what he needed to talk to Zack about? Cloud had given him a golden opportunity to settle the matter.

“Yeah, you know, about Aerith…”

“What about me?” said girl called down to them, making him jump.

“Er… Nothing much,” he fibbed.

She sent him a curious glance, but didn’t pursue the matter. However her intervention seemed to have put an ill-timed stop to their conversation, for Tifa had already grabbed Rain’s attention. Cloud nearly groaned aloud. Rain _had_ forgotten, hadn’t he?

Still, he let himself be distracted by the way Tifa was now hounding his brother with all kind of ridiculous questions to try and ascertain if he really was one version of Cloud Strife. Rain pointing out that he would know all that anyway because he had spent years in Cloud’s head had her huffing, glaring at him and proclaiming that no matter who he was in the end, he was kind of an ass. Cloud and Aerith had to respectively laugh and giggle at the helpless look on his face.

 

* * *

 

The house was a bit small for nine people. There were only two bathrooms and three bedrooms. The girls had one of those to themselves. Rain shared another room with Cloud and Zack while Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth squeezed in the last one. Vincent had claimed the sofa downstairs, which wasn’t very surprising. He wasn’t one for close quarters.

“Man, it feels like some sort of summer camp,” Zack commented, vigorously towel drying his hair.

He leaned through the open door and called down the corridor:

“Hey, anyone else has a sudden craving for s’mores?”

Aerith’s giggles answered him, followed by Angeal’s amused rebuke:

“We’re not making a campfire so you can roast marshmallows, Puppy.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

He retreated inside the bedroom, sighing.

“I don’t think we even have marshmallows here. How miserable is that?”

“I’m sure we’ll survive, Zack,” Cloud retorted with a lopsided smile.

He was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds and fidgeting with the blanket.

“Are you really okay with sleeping on the floor—”

“Ah ha!” Zack interrupted him. “None of that, Cloud! You took the floor last night, it’s my turn.”

As if to make his point, he flopped down on the heap of bedding laid out on the floor in the middle of the room.

“And tomorrow night, Rain’ll be healed enough Aerith won’t manage to guilt trip me into letting him keep the bed.”

He winked at Rain to take the edge out of the joke. Perched on the second bed, Rain smiled back. He had tugged one leg of his sleep pants up and was using a Restore Materia on his wound. The monster’s claw had speared straight through his thigh and healing it would take a while, but it looked healthy.

They heard the upstairs bathroom door open. Bare feet began running down the corridor and Tifa rushed past their bedroom.

“My turn this time!” she triumphantly claimed.

She nearly slammed the door on her way in. There was the sound of Genesis huffing in something like outrage.

“Say, Rain,” Cloud said out of the blue. “Since I finally have the time to ask you… I was wondering, do you know what happened when you were pulled out of my head? How does it factor in with, uh, time-travelling?”

Zack was now lying on his blankets, hands crossed behind his head, but he too looked up at this, curious. Pensive, Rain stared at the gently glowing Materia he was holding.

“Hmm… Well, I don’t really know why I ended up in your head in the first place. I didn’t exactly get a written explanation from the Planet. I can make a guess, though.”

“Yeah?” Cloud eagerly prompted.

“Well… I’m pretty sure the Planet messed up. I mean, I don’t think time-travel was anywhere on her original contingency plans. Why not, since she could do it? There had to be a reason she waited until she had no other choice. And she was weak by then. My guess would be she ended up sending my body and my mind at two different times.”

He put the Materia down and extended his hands in front of him, parallel to each other.

“My mind was sent the farthest back in time. It got there alone, and I guess it had no choice but to latch on to the body that it felt was closest to mine.”

“Which would be mine,” Cloud said.

“Right. Time passed…”

He slid his left hand toward his right and clapped them together.

“… and we reached the time where my body had been sent. Was being sent. Whatever. And I guess when it happened, my mind was instantly yanked back to this body, which is even more compatible than yours.”

He took notice of a powerful presence in the doorway. He glanced up and was unsurprised, but disturbed to find Sephiroth standing there, looking at him. He awkwardly let his hands drop.

“That’s my idea, anyway. But I’m not exactly an expert.”

“I guess that would make a twisted sort of sense,” Zack mused. “What about that weird city and the Mako pillar, though? Oh, hey Sephiroth, how long were you standing there?”

Rain gave a stiff shrug, declining to answer any further questions. He didn’t want to start talking about the Forbidden City, especially with Sephiroth right here. The first time the SOLDIER had gone to the ruins, Aerith had died, and the second time, the Planet had thrown a memorable tantrum and collapsed the whole town down on them. The less curious the man would be about the place, the better.

Instead, he fished the Restore Materia from atop his sheets and lobbed it at him. Although Sephiroth had been glancing at Zack, he caught it without looking. He was only wearing pants, and his bandages were starkly white against the skin of his torso.

“Thank you.”

“Did you want something else?” Rain asked him, purposefully turning away.

“To talk to you, actually.”

Rain threw him a baleful glare, to which he had no outward reaction. Sighing in impatience, he tugged his pant leg back down and got up. Sephiroth rewarded him with a satisfied smile and moved aside to let him pass.

“Don’t wait up for me,” Rain muttered to his two bunkmates.

He caught the sympathetic smile Cloud sent him before turning in the corridor. Without a word, he made for the stairs. He heard Sephiroth’s light footsteps following him to the ground floor. Like he had expected, Vincent was nowhere to be seen. He was probably out doing a last check of the perimeter.

He took a seat in the living room and crossed his arms, on the defensive.

“I told you I would only answer questions at my own discretion,” he warned.

Sephiroth sat across from him. He calmly started removing his bandages.

“I got that message loud and clear, don’t worry. It’s obvious some conversation topics make you… nervous.”

The loaded glance he sent him was only making him more uncomfortable. Rain was once more acutely aware of his blatant lack of weapon. To his relief, Sephiroth slid his eyes back to his task.

“I was hoping, however, that you would be less reluctant to share information about yourself.”

He blinked.

“… Me?”

“Surely not everything of importance to your character is sensitive enough that you would feel the need to keep silent about it?”

Confused, he had to resist the urge to fidget.

“I… I don’t understand. What do you want?”

Sephiroth seemed none too impressed with him. His bandages unravelled and slipped down to rest around his waist, revealing three long, scabbed claw marks. He raised the Materia to his chest where it began to glow.

“It’s not that complicated, Cloud,” he said, and Rain couldn’t stop a flinch at hearing his real name from this man. “I don’t have any hidden agenda, or any dastardly plan to trick you out of information you are not prepared to give, like you seem to believe. I simply want to know more about you, as a warrior and as a man.”

“I… _Why?_ ”

“If you absolutely need a reason, how about the fact that you already know much more about me than I would have willingly shared with anyone?”

He glanced away, unnerved. He blamed his unease with this strange conversation for what slipped out of his mouth next.

“I don’t know that much,” he whispered. “I don’t know _you_.”

Sephiroth tilted his head. He forced himself to hold the gaze of these slit pupils, defiant.

“Would you like to?”

The question was so unexpected it took him a few seconds to realize it had really come from Sephiroth’s lips.

“What?” he rasped, wide-eyed.

“ _I_ want to know you,” Sephiroth continued, unperturbed. “Without even taking in account your many secrets and the mystery of your very existence in this world, you are an intriguing man. Stubborn, selfless, wounded but never broken, and utterly unafraid of me. I am not ashamed to say I want to understand you.”

He couldn’t find anything to answer, struck speechless. He could feel himself shaking faintly. Never in a thousand lives would he have expected to hear this from this man. He had always been insignificant to him, hadn’t he? First a nobody, then a toy, barely a threat to his self-claimed godhood. These vivid green eyes had only ever glanced at him to laugh at him, at how powerless he was to stop him. Jenova, the Meteor, seeing the Planet die, waking up in Cloud’s head years in the past… Everything paled before the surrealism of these simple words, uttered in a cosy living room only lit by the moonlight and the green glow of their Mako eyes.

He shook his head as if to clear it.

“I— I…”

He stopped there, the words gone once more. Unruffled, Sephiroth finished his spell and laid the Materia down next to him. He crossed his legs.

“You mentioned your appointed task was as good as over. What do you intend to do now?”

Rain breathed easier. This was a neutral question, logical and uninvolved.

“I don’t really have any plans. See how things play out for you guys and do my best to help, I guess.”

“And if our current company were to split?”

“… Your point?”

“Do you intend to shadow me?” Sephiroth asked frankly.

Rain retreated in his seat, wary. If Sephiroth were to go a separate way from Cloud, Zack and the girls, who would he follow…? He didn’t need to think for long.

“Yeah.”

As long as he wasn’t certain, as long as there was still a risk… Thankfully, it didn’t seem to aggravate Sephiroth. He merely nodded, and there was something like satisfaction in his eyes.

“In that case, we might as well do our best to get along, don’t you think?”

This again. Rain glanced away.

“I don’t plan on becoming friends with you, Sephiroth,” he rebuked coldly, ignoring the wide-eyed teenager in him who wanted nothing more than to do just that.

“You clearly don’t plan on killing me either,” he retorted, “even though our little trip into the Lifestream made it clear you have plenty of reasons to want to.”

He shrugged, uncomfortable with this evocation.

“I’ll be watching you,” he breathed. “That’s all. I’m just the safeguard.”

“And if what you’re watching for never comes?”

He shrugged again. Then they’d never have to cross blades, and he’d be the first to rejoice. Sephiroth was right: he didn’t _want_ to kill him. It would have been easy to leave him to die in the Forgotten City, but against his will, Cloud’s boundless hope had rekindled something in him. He wanted to be wrong. More than anything, he wanted Sephiroth to be strong enough to escape his fate. But too often had he believed in victory and peace only for it to be destroyed in pain and blood.

Sephiroth stared at him with a hint of annoyance.

“You actually expect me to prove myself to you, don’t you?”

Rain nearly flinched at how easily he saw through him, but didn’t bother denying it.

Sephiroth was the one to have broken nearly every bit of hope and faith left in him. It seemed fair he would have to win them back if he intended for Rain to stop breathing down his neck.

The SOLDIER carded a hand through his hair. If Rain hadn’t known better, he’d have thought he looked frustrated.

“As always, you have quite the nerve, Cloud. But fine, I will.”

“You… will?” he repeated, uncomprehending.

“Win your trust,” he claimed, looking him right in the eye.

Then he stood up and strode to the door.

“Good night, Cloud.”

The moonlight reflected one last time on his long hair before he disappeared in the staircase, leaving Rain alone in the silent living room.


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we’re back! Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me. I have 5 chapters after this one done and waiting for edition, and probably 2 more chapters and an epilogue to finish the story. It’s now a quasi-certainty we’ll get to the end. :D I’ll try and update monthly, so expect chapter 13 around December 16th. Chapters 10 and 11 have been edited so Rain’s pov is back in third person, in accordance to the results of the poll on FF.net. Enjoy!

“I’ll pay you back.”

“I told you, there is no need for that.”

“I still will!”

Bewildered, Cloud watched Sephiroth and Rain argue back and forth across the kitchen table. Sephiroth wasn’t even looking up from the newspaper he had sat to read. Arms akimbo, Rain was glaring at him. On the table before him, two large twin swords winked in the afternoon sun.

Humming to herself, Aerith was putting away the groceries Cloud was getting out of the bags for her. According to her, she had gotten up early, thinking to walk to town to do some shopping. Only Vincent and Sephiroth had been up, and they had both agreed to go with her.

This is where her story became a little fishy. She claimed Sephiroth had merely made a quick stop at the town’s weapon shop before joining them again, but they had been gone much too long for a simple round trip. Sephiroth wore casual clothes, so he must have disguised himself; this and the groceries meant they had really gone in town. But the glint of humour in Aerith’s eyes made it obvious Sephiroth was hiding something and she found it too funny to give him away. Maybe Vincent would answer if Rain thought to ask him, but Cloud’s brother was so flustered he had taken their explanation at face value.

Sephiroth finally glanced up, his face a study in indifference.

“I don’t know why you insist so much, Cloud. We are currently pooling resources, anyway.”

Rain rubbed his brow, frustrated.

“That’s not the point. And I told you not to call me that. There is no need to confuse everyone.”

“What’s your point, then?” Sephiroth asked without much interest, having already returned to his reading.

“Look, whatever you’re… trying to achieve, plying me with gifts won’t work,” Rain snapped, kindling Cloud’s curiosity. “And I could have gotten them myself.”

“Your leg is not healed enough that you could have made the trip to the town and back without trouble.”

“Sephiroth…”

Sephiroth leaned back in his chair and deigned to look at Rain, folding his finished newspaper.

“I am not trying to buy your mercy, Cloud,” he said, ignoring Rain’s irritated mutter that he stop using this name. “You should know better. But I _do_ want to spar with you as soon as you will be well enough. For which you will need weapons. I trust these are adequate? I remember you mentioning you were best at ease with multiple blades.”

Rain gave him a queer look.

“When did I agree to spar with you?”

“Don’t you want to ascertain for yourself my current level of expertise? Given how much you insist on remaining wary of me, I thought it was a given.”

From his disgruntled frown, Rain found some logic in this, although he was none too happy about it. Sephiroth took this to mean the end of their conversation and calmly got up to refill his cup of coffee. Cloud glanced down when he came near. Where Aerith and Vincent’s shoes were muddy, as was appropriate after a walk through the forest, he was surprised to see Sephiroth’s coated in as much dust as dirt. And, was that monster blood?

Just then, Zack appeared in the doorway and spotted his girlfriend.

“There you are, Aerith! You have been busy this morning, I see.”

She turned to greet him with the extra-sweet smile she always had for him. Cloud took the opportunity to slip to his brother’s side and gently elbow him.

“What was that about?” he whispered to him, teasing. “Isn’t it a good sign if he feels like being generous with his money?”

Rain sighed and seemed to relent a bit. He picked up one of the swords, thumb rubbing the flat of the blade.

“I guess. I can’t complain, they look like they’re better quality than I would have expected from such a remote town.” He frowned at the grit clinging to the hilt grooves. “Shoddy upkeep, though. Where did he find those, in an attic?”

“Maybe in some mysterious ruins in the woods,” Cloud quipped, only half-joking.

He had to refrain from bursting out laughing at the glance Sephiroth sent him, proving he could hear their conversation well enough over Aerith and Zack’s chatting.

A sudden cry from the living room had the SOLDIER turning.

“Sephiroth! You’d better come see this!”

They all shut up, troubled. Genesis sounded tense. Cloud followed Rain and Sephiroth out.

The TV was on in the front room and their remaining companions had gathered around it. The screen showed some sort of arena in an appalling state of destruction. Smoke and dust hung in thick sheets in the air as the camera panned unsteadily over bleachers where spectators could be seen screaming and fleeing to the overflowing exits.

“— panic in the public at the appearance of mysterious fighters in the very last stage of the new SOLDIER First Class selection show!” a commentator was babbling in an anxious, breathless voice. “The best SOLDIERs are all…!”

Corpses and blood, sprayed carelessly among the arena’s debris. All the bodies wore the distinctive SOLDIER uniform, all had been mercilessly cut down. Cloud gasped, unable to believe it. In the very centre of the stage, the camera caught on figures. Only four people, standing back to back. As the smoke cleared around them, it became obvious that three of them were mere teenagers, one red-headed girl and two boys around Cloud’s age. The fourth alone seemed capable of the carnage, a big man displaying an equally big smirk, and yet he stood further apart from the others, as if deferring to them.

“Are you kidding me?” Zack yelled. “These guys defeated all of them?! Who the hell are they?”

Next to Cloud, Rain made a strangled noise. He glanced up and found him staring at the TV set with growing horror.

The screen flickered abruptly, cutting him off as he was opening his mouth to question him. Without any transition, the arena was replaced with the view of a huge metallic desk standing before an equally overbearing window bay. From his throne, President Shinra looked right at the camera. Triumph and satisfaction were written all over his face.

“Attention, citizens of the world!” he rumbled. “There is no need to be frightened. The excellent soldiers you have just seen are part of a new, innovative Shinra program.”

His fist slammed on the desk, making Aerith jump with a squeak.

“As this demonstration today has clearly proven, SOLDIERs are nothing to them!” he claimed with vindictive glee. “They are the strongest fighters Shinra has ever produced, and completely loyal to the interests of the company and the population. As such, they will from this very day replace SOLDIERs at the top of our army! They will take care of all dissidents and terrorists currently plaguing our good towns! They will ensure your security. You are to cooperate with them at all times. Resistance will not be tolerated! The Deepground units are the new elite force of Shinra. Invincible, swift and merciless!!!”

“Deepground…” Angeal repeated in a shocked whisper.

If not for the man ranting on TV, you could have heard a fly buzz in the room. Then Genesis exploded:

“Where did they get these freaks from?! Did they really plan this whole SOLDIER TV propaganda just to _slaughter_ them in the end? How dare they!”

“Shinra was aiming for a show of strength,” Vincent said. “Now all the rebels and company opponents will panic.”

“But who are…!”

As one, all heads in the room turned to Rain. Cloud’s brother had tangled his free hand in his hair and was staring, unseeing, at the ground. Cloud gingerly touched the arm with which he was clutching his new swords and called his name.

“Why?” Rain whispered. “Why am I so damn _stupid_?”

He whirled out of the room before anyone could stop him. Cloud flinched when the front door slammed in his exit, unused to so much anger on his part.

“It’s pretty definite that he knows something about that too,” Angeal noted darkly.

“Then let’s interrogate him,” Genesis decided, already marching to the door.

“No, don’t,” Sephiroth cut in.

“What? But, Sephiroth—”

“That man’s fight or flight reflex is awfully developed,” Sephiroth mocked, prompting Cloud to draw taller in outrage, “but he’ll come back. He always does, when he’s done working himself up over shadows. If you go after him now, however, he’ll just clam up. Believe me, you do not want to deal with him when he is in an uncooperative mood.”

“But we need more information!” Genesis protested.

“Do we? What do you expect to do with it, exactly?”

The ex-SOLDIER stopped, as if just remembering his situation. Their situation. Sephiroth moved to sit in an armchair where he crossed his legs. He appeared very calm, all things considered, but an undercurrent of anger still filtered in his voice as he addressed them.

“Unless you suggest the nine of us storm Midgar and fight an undetermined number of enemies with unknown abilities while also fending off Hojo’s next monstrous pets, I suggest we wait and see how this plays out. Things have just gotten a lot more difficult and odds are the next months will be gruelling for us. More than ever, it’s vital that we rest and heal. There’ll be time to find our place in the coming struggle when the initial dust has settled.”

The silence that followed was broken by the sharp sound of Zack cracking his knuckles. Cloud’s heart sank. He had never seen his friend look both so grim and angry. Dismayed, he realized Zack had probably known most of the SOLDIERs now lying dead, flung like broken dolls in Midgar’s arena. Maybe Kunsel had even been among them. Cloud hadn’t paid enough attention to the tournament to know.

“I need to hit something.”

“Let’s spar, Zack,” Angeal suggested, stepping forward with understanding eyes.

The two men filed out of the room. Unable to bear the sound of the TV anchorman droning on about Shinra’s announcement like it was the best thing that had happened to mankind since the discovery of Mako, Cloud fled with them.

 

* * *

 

As Sephiroth had predicted, Rain came back within a few hours of his hurried exit. Cloud was nicely surprised, having expected that it would take longer. However, it appeared that his brother was simply forcing himself to remain close to the group, perhaps out of some sense of responsibility. He still kept apart from them, taking his meals alone and brushing off all attempts at conversation, even gentle Aerith’s.

“Man, does he wear that name well,” Zack said a few days later at breakfast, as Rain had stayed upstairs to perch on a windowsill and brood. “I mean, this sucks for all of us, but he’s the only guy in the house that’s depressing just to be around.”

“Rain is just for short,” Cloud confessed without thinking. “My mom really named him Raincloud.”

That got a bark of laughter out of his subdued friend, a giggle out of Aerith and small smiles from the grim faces around, so even though the hilarity made Cloud blush, he felt warmth bloom in his chest at having defused a bit of the gloom.

Later in the morning, as the house was nearly deserted and Cloud had chosen, with no small amount of trepidation, to keep vigil in front of the TV with Genesis—who seemed to have turned staying updated into his personal responsibility—footsteps came from the stairs. Almost immediately, Cloud heard the creak of a chair from somewhere else in the house and a confident stride converging towards them. Cloud and Genesis both perked up when Sephiroth’s voice rose:

“Alright, that’s enough.”

Ex-trooper and ex-SOLDIER exchanged a glance and went to the door. Rain had stopped on the last step and was warily staring at an unrepentant Sephiroth standing in his way.

“… What?”

Cloud fidgeted, nervous, but Sephiroth looked calm enough. Calmer than he often was when dealing with Rain, truth be told.

“That’s enough space we have given you.”

“Weren’t you the one suggesting to leave him alone?” Genesis pointed out.

“Yes. And now I’m saying not to. In case you are wondering, Cloud, there are no Lifestream affluent around that you could throw yourself into.”

Rain’s face snapped closed in annoyance.

“That’s not what I— Don’t.”

Sephiroth tilted his head.

“Really? Because I’m not seeing much difference, here.”

His cryptic words must have meant something to Rain, for his shoulders sagged in something like defeat and he put a hand to his forehead.

“I’m not giving up. I’m just… just tired of messing up. I keep thinking of ways to make things better. But what if they just go on blowing in my face like everything before?”

Sephiroth shook his head in disgust.

“You have shackled yourself with such heavy chains you can’t even see they bear no lock. If your shoulders can no longer bear this burden, then mine will.”

Rain’s wide eyes snapped to him.

“What?”

“I’ll take full responsibility for any action you and I will take going forward. You’re only the safeguard, after all. You’ll leave the decisions to me.”

“I…”

By Rain’s sudden paleness, Cloud gathered that these apparently innocuous words carried for him a weight the likes of which no one else could ever fathom. Even Sephiroth seemed surprised by his reaction, though it only strengthened his resolve.

“That’s an order, Cloud.”

His voice had hardened into nothing less than that of the commanding officer he would never cease to be, even now, and it was so jarring that Cloud himself, hearing his name, stiffened to attention out of pure reflex.

More surprising was Rain’s aborted motion to do the same. Rain stopped and blinked, confused and out of balance. His eyes flickered in and out of focus, as if he wasn’t sure where he was and what he was doing.

“Cloud,” Sephiroth snapped.

He jerked and clutched the stairs railing in a white-knuckled grip.

“… Yes,” he whispered, and because Cloud had been watching for it, he saw him swallow the “sir” back.

Abruptly, Sephiroth’s head swivelled.

“Do you feel that?”

“Uh?” Cloud said.

Next to him, Genesis breathed deeply with an air of forced calm.

“And here I was hoping I was simply coming down with some kind of cold.”

Rain seemed to shake off his haze and his eyes widened.

“Oh,” was all he said before darting up the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Cloud called after him, bewildered.

“Hojo,” Sephiroth growled.

He stormed out of the front door, Genesis barely detouring through the living room to snatch his sword before following him. Although unarmed, Cloud was hot on their heels, heart slamming in his ribcage. One of Hojo’s monsters, _again_? How had they been found out?

Both SOLDIERs had stopped in front of the house and were scanning the neighbouring tree line. The girls, who had been chatting nearby with a few magazines, looked on in confusion. Cloud ran to them.

“Aerith, you should get inside.”

“Why?” she said, rising to her feet. “Is something coming?”

As if to answer her, dozens of birds suddenly took flight from the forest. In the heavy silence they left in their wake, they heard regular thuds, still faint but quickly growing closer. Sephiroth and Genesis exchanged a glance and vanished. Rain appeared in the doorway. He had his twin swords in hand, now impeccably clean, and threw his own weapon at Cloud.

“They went north,” he told him.

Rain hesitated, glancing in that direction as if to join them, then merely nodded. Aerith flinched behind Tifa as the sound of footsteps caught their attention, but it was only Angeal and Zack coming running back to the hideout. No sooner had they stepped in sight that an enraged shriek erupted nearby. In a crash of falling trees and raining foliage, the monster burst in the clearing and promptly collided with the side of the house.

The wall collapsed under its weight, taking part of the roof with it. Both girls screamed, though Tifa alone followed through with a few choice curses as they stumbled back, Cloud and Rain covering their retreat. Beady Mako eyes fell on their group, but before it could find its feet again and attack them, bullets rained down from the sky and pelted its thick hide. It roared and turned around, only to face Sephiroth and Genesis’ lightning-fast simultaneous strikes. It was dead before Zack and Angeal could even reach the scene.

“That was quick,” Angeal said with a strained smile, still fighting the headache.

“You know, if we’re gonna keep meeting these things, we really should give them a name,” Zack quipped. “I’m thinking ‘Hojospawn’. It’s got a nice, creepy ring to it.”

Meanwhile, Genesis was elbowing Sephiroth with a friendly smirk.

“Teamwork, Sephiroth? That’s a new one for you. Are these creatures making you more humble?”

Sephiroth brushed him off with a huff, but his eyes betrayed a hint of amusement. He pointed Masamune to the corpse, Fire Materia lighting up in preparation to the spell. A golden claw landed on his arm. Vincent touched down by his side without a sound, rifle drawn.

“Wait.”

“It’s weird,” Rain added as everyone gathered around the corpse.

“No harness,” Angeal realised. “This one doesn’t have a harness. Where are the camera, the microphone?”

Cloud had no idea why this was so important, but Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed.

“Hojo would never miss a chance to brag. And why was it alone? He knows by now it’s not enough against us.”

“Yes, well,” a new, familiar voice said, “we were really hoping to find you, not kill you.”

By the time Tseng finished his sentence, there was the barrel of a gun and various swords pointed at him, and their group had already snapped in formation around the girls.

“Turks,” Genesis spat.

Unfazed, Tseng stepped out of the shadow of the trees. The red-headed woman, Cissnei, stuck close to his side. At first glance they were alone, but Cloud knew better than to trust appearances with Turks. He grimly wondered how many of them were hiding around. How many snipers? He shifted back to better shield Tifa. She sent him an arch look, but the fact that she didn’t argue said volumes.

“We didn’t come to fight,” Tseng said. “We came to negotiate.”

The tip of Masamune delicately brushed the spawn’s body, setting fire to it in the same movement.

“And you introduce yourself with one of Hojo’s pet projects?” Sephiroth countered in a frosty voice.

Tseng sighed.

“I apologise for this, but it was the only way we could find you. Although… we were not looking for _you_ , per se. I didn’t realize exactly how hard a man you are to kill, Sephiroth.”

“How?” he asked, more of an order than a question.

“As I am not a scientist, I don’t know the details. Only that these creatures are built with the ability to find you, wherever you are in the world. I believe it has something to do with the lot of you representing the highest concentration of J cells on the planet.”

Sephiroth only had to tilt his head above his shoulder for Rain to come to his side, staring back with dismay.

“The Reunion,” Cloud heard him whisper in dawning realisation. “I didn’t realise… I didn’t know it could be used this way.”

Sephiroth nodded, apparently only caring that Rain knew what was going on.

“Tell me later,” he just said, and Cloud was amazed to see his calm soothe whatever guilt was plaguing his brother.

Tseng had observed the exchange with interest, but didn’t pry.

“That’s how we found you in Banora, in case you were wondering. But I’m sure you remember that collaboration quickly went south. Stealing this one from the laboratories was quite a pain.”

That caught their interest.

“You mean you’re not here on behalf of Shinra?” Angeal asked.

“No,” Cissnei said, spreading her hands. “In fact, we had to sneak under Shinra’s nose to get here. That’s why there’s only the two of us.”

Sephiroth frowned and turned, but Vincent was already gone in a flash of red coat. Cissnei started and swivelled around, looking for him. He returned a minute later, as swiftly as he had left.

“There is no one else.”

Cloud felt relief flood his body, so powerful he sagged under its weight. They all relaxed.

“In that case, why don’t we all just sit down and talk this out?” Aerith suggested sweetly.

“Wah… Aerith?” Zack did a double take.

“Well, they are not here to hurt us, right? We can be civil, can we not?”

Zack shook his head with a laugh.

“Only you, Aerith…”

“I think we can forget tea, seeing as the kitchen didn’t survive their knocking method,” Tifa snarked, not being in such a forgiving mood.

“I’d rather we forgo the pleasantries altogether,” Sephiroth said, crossing his arms. “Why are you here, Tseng?”

The Turk’s eyes flickered down as he gathered his thoughts.

“Did the news reach you here?”

“You are speaking of Deepground, I presume,” Genesis said.

“So you heard. But I don’t think you realise exactly how bad it’s gotten. Right now, the company is collapsing from the inside.”

“Are you forgetting who you are talking to? Why should we care what happens to Shinra?” Genesis scoffed.

“Shinra may never have been perfect,” Cissnei butted in, “but it’s getting a lot worse even as we speak. Deepground has taken over all departments, and believe me, their methods are not something you want to see spread. They make us Turks look like angels. Um… no offence.”

Angeal lifted amused eyebrows as she turned to him.

“What do you expect us to do about it?” Zack asked dubiously. “If you’ve got a problem with these guys, why don’t you take it to the President?”

Tseng and Cissnei exchanged a loaded glance.

“For various reasons, not the least of which being the favour we granted you last week, we Turks were already under suspicion from the President. We could have made it as long as the company relied on us, but with Deepground’s unveiling… the President took the opportunity to shut us out.”

“Our leader Veld was demoted,” Cissnei added darkly. “We are now under Heidegger’s direct jurisdiction and he’s doing his best to keep us locked out of everything. With the way things are going, the Turks won’t survive this. Our only options now are to flee the company, or to fight.”

“Fight?” Zack repeated. “But fighting Deepground would mean fighting all of Shinra, right?”

“No,” Tseng said to their surprise. “When I said that things are getting bad… it’s a huge understatement. Deepground is a chokehold. Midgar is on curfew and even during the day, patrols seize the slightest opportunity to harass civilians. Citizens are getting manhandled or arrested for the most ridiculous reasons. Junon is in the same situation, and about every other city is heading there fast. Economy is shutting down, the people are afraid. In the company itself, employees cooperate under duress. Everyone’s every move is under scrutiny. Those that are suspected of treason disappear without warning. This cannot go on.”

Cloud couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“That… that can’t be!” he exclaimed. “Why isn’t the President doing anything? Even he should see how bad it is if it’s gotten to this point!”

“The President doesn’t care,” Cissnei said bitterly. “For months now, ever since your successive defections, he’s been deathly afraid his prized SOLDIERs were out to get him and it was only a matter of time before Sephiroth turned up on his doorstep to run him through. It’s been his only obsession. Now that Deepground is here, he feels safe. He’s probably happy everyone is afraid. Less people plotting against him.”

“What do you know of Deepground?” Sephiroth asked.

“Barely more than you do,” Tseng answered. “Not even us had heard of it until a few days ago. It’s an unbelievably secret project. Apart from their members, the only people aware of their existence were apparently the President himself, Heidegger and Scarlet. With our limited accesses, we have yet to figure out where the project was housed or how they could have reached such an incredible level of security.”

Rain shifted, as if eager to talk, though he only did so when Sephiroth prompted him with a look.

“They are right, Sephiroth. Deepground can’t be allowed to go on. They are ruthless and relish on chaos. The President has no idea what he’s done by releasing them on the surface. He’s parading a monster that’s going to devour him and burn the world to ashes as soon as it gets the chance.”

Cloud gulped at his bleak earnestness. Tseng coughed to regain their attention. He was eyeing Rain with wariness.

“I had been wondering this for a little while, now. Could it be that you… are from Deepground?”

“Uh?” came simultaneously from Rain, Zack and Cloud.

“You are definitely not a regular SOLDIER, yet you are enhanced like one. I couldn’t understand where you came from, but Deepground’s existence changes everything.”

“No, I’m not—” Rain started to say, but Sephiroth interrupted him by clutching his arm.

“Rain. A word, if you would.”

Probably more startled into compliance by Sephiroth’s use of his actual nickname than anything else, Rain let himself be dragged away. The rest of them stayed there in baffled, uneasy silence.

“Hum,” Cissnei finally asked Aerith. “So… didn’t you and these guys fall in the Lifestream?”

 

* * *

 

Rain followed Sephiroth all the way to the opposite side of the clearing, well out of earshot of the two Turks, before shaking off his grip.

“What’s with you? I’m not from Deepground, Sephiroth.”

He turned to look him up and down. Rain fought the urge to fidget.

“Tseng’s reasoning is not without merits. You can’t have become a SOLDIER by traditional means, as Strife couldn’t make the cut.”

“Yeah, well… I’m not denying that, but I’m not Deepground either,” he said, averting his eyes. “Was that seriously bothering you?”

“I’m not bothered. I’m seeing an opportunity.”

“What?” Rain blinked. “I don’t follow.”

Sephiroth joined his hands behind his back and paced, thoughtful.

“Have you spared a thought to your complete lack of administrative existence in this world, Cloud? You don’t have any papers. No birth record, no bank account, no employment registry, nothing.”

“Oh. I don’t… It doesn’t seem really important right now.”

Sephiroth again speared him with these cat-like eyes.

“You’ll have to think of it one day. Meanwhile, I imagine that if Deepground was such a deeply secretive operation, next to no files on it will exist. Paperwork always leaves a trace. Am I right?”

He stared, taken aback.

“I guess, yes. The W… we did our best to scour Deepground’s base in the future, once it had been brought down, but the only things we ever found were bits and pieces. Scientific reports, receipts, personal notes without any correlation to each other. A complete mess.”

“So if you were to pretend to be a Deepground defector, would anyone be the wiser?”

“Why would I do that?” he frowned.

Sephiroth tilted his head, amused.

“Because, Cloud, I’m sure the Turks would be grateful enough for our help they would gladly create proper records for an ally, providing we can explain why you don’t have any.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”

Of course he hadn’t. Rain was a fighter. Give him a proper enemy and people to battle by his side and he would lead them forward come hell or high water. He could even be a decent tactician, when the situation called for it. But seeing the bigger picture had never been his forte. That’s where he needed people like Reeve and, well… Sephiroth apparently.

It was still hard to remember that this Sephiroth, under all probability, had no hidden agenda. It was even harder to believe. Yet his words earlier… Rain repressed a shiver and looked down.

Right now, any glimpse of the man’s face brought echoes of their previous conversation. Rain had yet to fully understand the impact it had had on him. What he knew was that, somehow, Sephiroth had managed to say what a shameful, desperate part of him had been wanting to hear for years. The option to lay down his problems at someone else’s feet, to have them shoulder the heavy responsibilities that came with the respect and quiet awe everyone, back in his time, had looked at him with… He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t yearned for it.

Years ago, when the false life he had built on Zack’s memories had come crumbling down around him, leaving his true self, bare and raw, exposed to the cruel reality, all he had wanted to do was curl in a tight little ball and let a real hero save the world. But there had been no one else, because Zack had died to save him. In the end he had picked up his sword and chosen to fill the hole his friend had left, but he had always felt like he was wearing shoes too big to ever fit him. The pain had numbed over the years, but it hadn’t gotten any easier. However, he had kept at his unwanted task, because the only people he respected enough to take over from him, he loved too much to burden with such an excruciating duty.

But here was the man, amongst all men, whose keen intellect and unbelievable talents he would never in a million years think to doubt. A man he didn’t love, didn’t feel responsible for, but still believed superior to himself in everything but heart and sanity. And this man was willingly tugging the weight of the world from his shoulders.

Rain knew he had to remain wary of him, but truthfully, he couldn’t get over how easy it had been to just let Sephiroth take the lead while dealing with the Turks. He felt like he should be clinging to his charge, yet his tired, numb fingers wouldn’t obey.

“Cloud.”

He started, jerked out of his reverie. Sephiroth was waiting for him, a minute rise of his eyebrows his only indication that Rain might want to answer sometime soon.

“Yeah, uh. Sorry. I mean…” He shook his head to try and clear it from the cobwebs. “Yeah, it could work, I guess. Deepground members… It’s too huge, too unkempt. They wouldn’t know I’m not one of them. And some of them were born under there. They won’t have papers either.”

“So you’ll fit right in. Very well.”

“Does this mean you’ll help the Turks?” he asked, keeping pace with Sephiroth as he strode back to the others.

“ _We’ll_ help, I believe,” he said, a glint in his eyes. “I know better by now than to ignore your warnings, Cloud.”

By the time Rain realised instinct had had him fall just behind Sephiroth, right where a second-in-command would have been standing, they had already crossed the clearing.

 

* * *

 

“And you trust him in these circumstances?” Tseng asked, eyeing Rain with obvious misgivings.

As the sky was threatening to open over their heads and drench them to the bones, they had retreated inside the house for what promised to be a lengthy negotiation. The living room was somewhat intact, though rubble from the kitchen’s outer wall had rolled as far as the doorway. It was drafty, but dry, and they had managed to salvage enough of their food reserves in the destroyed room to improvise some lunch.

“Enough that you doubting him will change nothing, Tseng,” Sephiroth said. “We don’t have to justify ourselves to you when you are the ones who came to us for help. Rain has earned our trust and that’s all you need to know.”

Rain shifted, uneasy at being talked about like he wasn’t right there. Cloud handed him a roll of bread with an expectant smile. He thanked him with a twitch of his lips.

“Excuse my scepticism,” Tseng argued, “but I can’t help but remember how absolutely certain of Deepground’s loyalty President Shinra seems. Someone as innately suspicious as he must have very good basis for such a judgement.”

“He does,” Rain mumbled.

“Oh, is the fountain of knowledge finally running again?” Zack said, perking up with a grin, to which Cloud retorted with a swift kick to his shin. “Ow, Cloud!” he laughed.

“Care to be more specific?” Tseng coolly asked.

Rain stopped, an apple halfway to his lips. He forced himself not to glance at Sephiroth before answering.

“All proper Deepground members are implanted with a control chip. I’m not.”

His monotone had dropped a cold spell on everyone. Zack’s smile had vanished.

“You mean they are being forced to obey?” he exclaimed. “Like… like… robots?!”

He shrugged. Sephiroth fully turned to him from where he sat at the table, across from the two Turks.

“What exactly do these chips insure? That they can’t act against the President’s will, or that they can’t even think of it?”

Trust him to ask the hard questions.

“I’m not really sure… I only know what I heard. Soldiers are implanted with a chip that force their loyalty to four special members of Deepground called the Restrictors. They are the ones with the real power down there. Each one of them swore fealty to the President.”

“You’ve mentioned ‘down there’ a few times now. I take it Deepground earned its name from its base location?”

He nodded.

“It’s far below the Shinra building.”

“The abandoned facility around Mako Reactor Zero,” Tseng realised, his eyes widening minutely. “It used to be medical labs for wounded SOLDIERs. It was shut down many years ago.”

“Not shut down. Repurposed. And much enlarged.”

“What about these Restrictors?” Angeal asked. “Who are they? Can they be brought down?”

“It seems like the best way to go about this,” Genesis approved.

“No!” Rain exclaimed. “Absolutely not! Getting rid of the Restrictors is the last thing you want to do.”

Startled by the urgency in his voice, the whole room exchanged glances. Sephiroth raised an enquiring eyebrow at him.

“And why is that?”

“If you kill them, you won’t incapacitate the rest of the force; you’ll just free them from any sort of control. And a lot of Deepground members hate surface-dwellers and were trained for blood and destruction.”

“We’d unleash the monster you were talking about earlier,” Sephiroth understood. “The Restrictors are only its reins.”

“You truly trust his word? He could be leading us on,” Tseng argued. “The Restrictors do seem like our best chance.”

“If they aren’t a weakness we can exploit, I’m not sure what we can do,” Angeal confessed.

He finished preparing a sandwich which he handed to Sephiroth. His friend nodded in thanks.

“We’ll attack the central point of the whole structure. President Shinra,” he announced matter-of-factly.

Zack swallowed wrong and proceeded to choke. The rest of them stared.

“While I can certainly see the poetic justice in such a move, wouldn’t it have the same end result?” Genesis said.

“I said ‘attack’, not ‘kill’. If the Restrictors are so deeply loyal to the President that he feels no need to doubt them, then they will place his safety above all else. Capture Shinra and we’ll have the whole of Deepground in the palm of our hand.”

“Then what? What will happen to the company?” Cissnei asked, worried.

“We can’t worry about that now,” Tseng said grimly. “We came here because we know something has to be done, no matter what. Predicting the consequences of this course of action is impossible at this point. All we can do is forge ahead and adapt as the situation changes.”

“Then we’re in agreement?”

“Yes. The Turks will support you in your capture of the President.”

The words rang heavily in the air, echoing off a ring of solemn faces. They had a plan.


	14. Chapter 13

Dusk was darkening the sky as a nondescript military truck lumbered its way to the checkpoint at one of the entrances to above-Plate Midgar. As it stopped before the barrier, soldiers decked in the Deepground uniform gathered around it. Their manners were foreboding and brusque. One stepped up to the driver’s window.

“ID,” he barked.

The helmeted trooper wordlessly handed the required papers. The officer studied them. A scowl overtook his features at finding them in order. He peered in the driver’s cabin and scowled even more when he saw a SOLDIER looking back at him from the passenger seat, his Mako eyes silently daring him to cause trouble.

Damn SOLDIERs couldn’t seem to get it into their thick skulls that they were no longer the top dogs in Shinra. No Deepground grunt worth his salt missed a chance to take them down a peg or two. A quick slash of the hand had his men skirting to the back of the truck, but they only found standard equipment and two more troopers sitting on the side benches.

The Deepground officer reluctantly handed the papers back and waved them through.

“Hurry the hell up!” he shouted. “You should have been back hours ago. You get caught outside after curfew, SOLDIER or not, it’s not gonna make a damn difference, you hear me? Outclassed, damn slackers.”

His men snickered, both at the taunt and at Deepground’s new nickname for SOLDIERs. “Outclassed”, because all that was left of them was pathetic Second and Third Classes, their best and brightest slaughtered like harmless puppies by Deepground’s elite.

The SOLDIER’s eyes flashed, and for a second he felt a burst of wariness. For all his bravado, he was only a minor officer. He and his squad could probably take a SOLDIER down… probably.

But the man just grunted:

“And a good evening to you.”

Still, there was a trace of steel in his voice that had the officer refrain from another jeer. The barrier lifted and the truck carried on its way.

Inside the vehicle, the driver allowed himself a smirk.

“I had my doubts at first, but you clean up surprisingly well,” Genesis said.

In the passenger seat, Rain frowned and tugged at his SOLDIER uniform. The outfit was giving him déjà vu. It felt both completely natural and very uncomfortable, like it had ever since he had untangled his memories from Zack’s and realized the truth of his past, so long ago. He was not a SOLDIER, but he had never had any trouble passing for one. It didn’t exactly fill him with pride.

One of the troopers out back granted him an unimpressed look through his helmet.

“You find it unpleasant? Try these uniforms.”

Rain very nearly rolled his eyes at him.

“I _did_ , thank you. Some of us didn’t get dumped in SOLDIER by default as soon as they could lift a sword.”

It was a shot in the dark, but as Angeal snorted and Sephiroth only shrugged in answer, he couldn’t have been far from the mark.

Sephiroth did look more awkward in grunt gear than Angeal and Genesis. There was a subtle tension in him that spoke of something like chafing pride. However, Rain was the only one of them who could pass for a SOLDIER squad leader without being immediately recognized. If all of them had worn a trooper helmet, it would have fostered suspicion.

“I still don’t like that we had to split up,” Angeal murmured. “Can we really trust the Turks?”

Sephiroth didn’t move.

“If nothing else, have faith in your pupil. Personable he may be, but Zack knows better than to turn his back on Turks.”

And Vincent was with them, Rain privately thought. They could have used his experience in infiltration, but with the girls to think of and the necessity to choose a small group with maximum firepower, splitting up had been a necessity. True to his word, Rain had refused to let Sephiroth out of his sight. That didn’t mean he had to let Cloud, Zack, Tifa and Aerith go in the lion’s den without someone he trusted to have their back. Last they had heard, they had been escorted by the Turk named Cissnei to Kalm where they were to stay until they could regroup.

Shinra HQ loomed above them through the windshield, closer by the minute. The sky up here was already dark, not so much from twilight than from pollution. Rain tugged at his gloves, nervous despite himself. All these years spent in Cloud’s head, he had been detached, isolated from the world. If that period of time was to be put aside, this was his first time back to the foreboding building in… it seemed like forever since its destruction. Even crossing top-Plate Midgar felt alien. It actually reminded him of his first return to Nibelheim after it had burned to the ground: the place was similar to his memories… and yet it wasn’t. The effect was chilling.

Genesis drove along the tower side and turned into a parking lot entrance where they had to endure another Deepground check. These soldiers were a bit more thorough. Rain held his breath until they climbed back down from the truck’s back and let them through. Genesis’ lips were pinched in annoyance.

“Pretentious upstarts,” he hissed while sliding in a parking space. “They really believe they have Shinra under their thumbs, don’t they?”

“Let’s prove them wrong,” Sephiroth said, standing up and lifting a floorboard from where the three ex-SOLDIERs snatched their weapons, concealed in cases and lumpy packages.

They disembarked and crossed to the closest door where Rain slid the card Tseng had given him in the reader. He tried to look like he did this every day as he led his three make-believe subordinates through a maze of corridors his disorientated brain had all the trouble in the world figuring out through multiple sets of memories—his from his trooper days, then from Avalanche’s incursion, Zack’s, Cloud’s…

Due to the late hour, they didn’t see many people in the hallways, which at least allowed the others to discreetly nudge him in the right directions. The employees they did pass all looked exhausted and apprehensive, hurrying back home before they could be accused of breaking the curfew. Once they reached the huge lobby, it became obvious why: security had been entirely replaced by Deepground members. As their group ascended the stairs to the bank of elevators, Rain saw the guards nearby exchange whispers. One of the men stepped in the cabin with them.

“New security policy! All employees moving around HQ after dark must be escorted by a security detail.”

Rain eyeballed him with enough fury that his smirk faltered and vanished like so much butter in a frying pan. Security policy, his _ass_. They were just being especially vile towards someone they perceived to be a SOLDIER. For the first time, he regretted that Tseng had been unable to get his hands on a Deepground uniform. His disguise was more attention-catching than expected. It was a hindrance.

Rain uncrossed an arm. The guard looked like he halfway expected him to punch him. Instead, his fist smashed the button for one of the trooper floors. The doors closed and the cabin set in motion. They rose thirty or so floors in complete silence, Rain staring the man down the whole time. He caught Genesis’ lips twitching out of the corner of his eye. The elevator stopped and his three accomplices stepped off without a word. They had hoped to not have to split up, but the possibility had still been taken in account in their plans.

By the time Rain and his unwanted company reached floor 49, the SOLDIER floor, the guard had significantly wilted. He didn’t even try to follow him as he exited. Rain pretended he knew where he was going until the elevator departed. Then he stopped and let out an inaudible sigh. Alright. Now, to find the staircase…

“Who are you?”

He didn’t jump, but it was a near thing. He hadn’t realized anyone was nearby, but here a SOLDIER Second stood across the lounge area, eyeing him with distrust.

“I don’t recognize you, and I know every SOLDIER… Hey, wait. Cloud?!”

He twitched, unable to help it. Who was…? His voice was vaguely familiar, but from where… That’s right, Zack’s friend!

“Kunsel?” he exclaimed in surprise.

The man gaped.

“Cloud, you’re really…”

Rain crossed the room before he could say another word.

“Is this room secure?” he whispered.

It was difficult to tell under the helmet, but Kunsel’s face closed.

“Hum…”

“Where is the staircase?”

Unless Shinra had somehow decided to downgrade the security before AVALANCHE’s infiltration in Rain’s time, the staircase had never been under surveillance. (After all, what kind of freaks would manage to sneak into the building and choose to trudge up _sixty_ damn floors of stairs when there were perfectly serviceable elevators nearby?) Kunsel seemed to understand.

“Follow me.”

He guided him to a discreet door Rain would have mistaken for a cupboard. The sound of it closing behind them echoed in the bare, seemingly infinite stairwell. Rain immediately tapped a predefined rhythm on the metal guardrail. At his signal, footsteps resumed from far under them. Kunsel glanced down in alarm.

“What’s happening, here?”

Rain turned back to him.

“I’m not Cloud, but his brother. Rain. You don’t have to worry. Zack is safe and he is in in this plan.”

Kunsel relaxed minutely.

“How do I know you’re saying the truth? I don’t know you. You can’t be a SOLDIER. Is Zack even here?”

“He is not,” another voice said.

Sephiroth must have gotten bored of the stairs. He sailed suddenly through the middle of the stairwell and Rain barely jerked aside in time to let him land on the railing. He glared at him, but of course Sephiroth paid him no heed. Kunsel gasped when the elite SOLDIER twisted his trooper helmet off, allowing silver hair to cascade down his back.

“Sir!”

He snapped a salute, and twitched when first Genesis, then Angeal followed Sephiroth’s route.

“Who is this?” Genesis hissed in distrust.

“Zack’s friend,” Angeal answered, taking his own helmet off. “Hello, Kunsel. Zack will be happy to know you are well. He was very worried.”

“Sir! You… you look alright yourself.”

“I feel considerably better. Thank you for your help.”

“No problem, sir. Is there… something more I can do to help you?” he asked, carefully edging around the reason for their presence.

“Keep out of trouble,” Sephiroth said. “We won’t need you today, nor hopefully afterwards. But stay low just in case.”

“Sure thing.”

“Here, I’ll give you Zack’s new number,” Angeal added. “But don’t call—”

“—from a Shinra PHS?” Kunsel’s lips twitched. “I know the game, sir, don’t worry. Not even Deepground will get a snitch on me.”

The SOLDIER soon left, Zack’s number safely memorised, and they resumed their climbing.

Two floors later, Rain slipped alone through the staircase door. Floor 51 was just as deserted as floor 49. The lights had been dimmed for the night, although just as they had hoped, the main office remained brightly illuminated.

Less welcome were the two Deepground grunts standing guard before the door. They perked up at his arrival, like hounds smelling blood.

“ ‘Bit late to hand over a report.”

“Don’t be so judgemental, pal. Maybe he’s _handing over_ something else.”

“Can’t begrudge a guy his late night company, uh?”

“That’s what gets me about Outclassed, you know,” one added, looking Rain up and down. “They’re all so damn _pretty_.”

“I know, right? Even the director!”

“No wonder they don’t go after girls, they can just keep to themselves!”

They snickered. Rain pointedly stopped before them and waited until they shut up. When they looked up, wary, he said with a straight face:

“I’m glad you think I’m pretty.”

Then he punched the less annoying one in the mouth, hard enough that he lost consciousness. He drew his weapon faster than the other one. That fight was over in seconds and a bit more messy.

The office door flew open.

“What is all this rac… Planet!”

At finding an unknown man standing at his door with two guards at his feet, one unconscious and one dead, Lazard Deusericus, director of SOLDIER, took a startled step back.

“Who in the world are you? You’re not one of my men.”

Rain stayed silent. Being constantly reminded of the fallacy of this uniform was already getting old.

“Dear director! What a pleasure to see you again.”

Lazard’s gaze flew behind him to his approaching companions. It landed on Genesis, leading the party with a winsome smile. The director paled.

“Y-you… That’s impossible, you’re…”

He was quick to draw a concealed handgun, but Rain was even quicker to strike it out of his grip. The weapon clattered to the ground on the opposite side of the office. Lazard closed his eyes, gulping. He lifted his hands in the air and let them in. Rain stayed by the door.

“What a cold welcome,” Genesis said. “And here I thought you and I understood each other.”

“You were supposed to be dead. And the two of you…”

His eyes flitted to Angeal and Sephiroth.

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing you’re not ready to offer, I’m sure. We’re all friends here, Lazard.”

“Friends? I wouldn’t be so quick to use that word. I agreed to fund you and Hollander, and now it’s only a matter of time before the good doctor rats me out. I’m sure he was only waiting for the best opportunity. But with Deepground in command, he’ll talk whether he wants to or not. And yet I’m trapped here, unable to flee Midgar because every single one of my moves is under watch. A dead man walking has no friends.”

The director sounded grim. His funding of Genesis’ rebellion was news to Rain, but if his situation was so dire, it certainly explained the concealed weapon.

“And nothing to lose either,” Sephiroth argued. “You want Deepground gone; so do we. Will you lie down and wait for your death or fight until the end?”

Lazard straightened. A calculating glint appeared in his eyes.

“What do you want?” he repeated.

“An executive’s access card to the upper levels.”

“Fine. But I’m coming with you. The three of you appear to be excessively good at beating the odds. You may well be my only chance to get out of this tower alive.”

The infiltrators exchanged glances. Finally, they shrugged. Lazard was his own man. Accompanying them could hardly put him in more danger than he already was and he knew better than to get in the way of SOLDIERs.

They dragged the Deepground troopers inside the director’s office, the one still alive tied up and gagged, then returned to the elevators without meeting anyone. Lazard produced the card and Sephiroth pressed the button for the last floor. Rain saw Lazard gulp despite his best efforts to cling to his countenance.

“You know an access this late at night will already have set off all the security in the tower, don’t you?”

“We do,” Sephiroth said calmly.

It mattered little. The Turks had promised a distraction that would keep all the helicopters grounded. Shinra had no escape route.

Lazard nodded jerkily and said no more. The cabin rose. The anticipation within its walls rose with it. They unsheathed their weapons as one, let their disguises fall to the floor unheeded.

The elevator jerked and stopped. The doors opened to floor 69: the buffer area before President Shinra’s floor, essentially one huge foyer whose only feature of note was the ostentatious double spiral staircase leading up. But before it stood three solitary figures. The stripes on their Mako suits glowed in the half-light.

“Tsviets,” Rain whispered, stepping out with the others.

The woman dressed in red smirked at them, her two companions silent by her side.

“Oh?” she said in her rough accent. “It seems even the little mice have heard of us. Well, allow us to introduce ourselves properly! I am Rosso the Crimson, and these are Nero the Sable and Azul the Cerulean. We are President Shinra’s new elite soldiers. An upgrade, if you will.”

Although her words were meant to insult them, she didn’t hesitate to rake appreciative eyes up and down Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal’s forms. Then, as if an afterthought, she seemed to find Rain’s SOLDIER uniform rather fetching as well. Rain found it disconcerting. He had fought Rosso before, but as a mature and grounded woman. Right now, she couldn’t have been older than Zack.

“So there were traitors after all,” the imposing Azul said, staring straight at Lazard. The director prudently stepped back behind Genesis.

“Brother will be pleased,” Nero agreed. “He was right; this tower is indeed a den of snakes.”

Behind them, the elevator closed with a final-sounding snap. The call button lit up a deep red. Before the cabin could go back to the lower floors and risk pouring reinforcements behind their backs, Angeal stabbed the doors’ control panel. It shorted out in a shower of sparks. Rosso laughed.

“Burning the bridges behind you, are you? Very well. Shall we dance?”

She hefted her heavy double blade. Rain would have battled her since he already knew her fighting style, but he was warier of Nero. Azul exuded brute strength and appeared to be the more threatening of the three, but he remembered Vincent telling him about Nero’s dangerous power. Vincent had been the one most heavily involved in the struggle against Deepground, back then. What little he had shared afterwards was precious intel.

He stepped forward to claim Nero as his opponent. Genesis strode confidently to Rosso, who hummed in approval.

“You are not wearing red today.”

“My apologies. We would have made quite the dramatic sight in any other circumstances.”

“Oh, that’s alright. I will have you bathed in red… the red of your blood!”

She launched himself at him without any more ceremony and Angeal used the flat of the Buster Sword to counter the bullet rain that Azul’s machine gun roared at him.

Nero dodged Rain’s first swings. Although his arms remained trapped in the long sleeves of his straight-jacket Mako suit, the strange wings-like apparatus on his back whipped out two guns and fired at him with eerie accuracy. Rain ducked, rolled and followed as his enemy backed away to an empty part of the foyer. Nearby, he heard Rosso’s throaty laugh and Angeal’s battle cry.

Wisps of murky shadow caught the corner of his eye. Without thinking, he threw himself at Sephiroth. They collapsed and slid away, barely avoiding the orb of darkness that surged where, just a second before, the SOLDIER had been covertly making his way toward the stairs.

“Ah ha,” Nero said as they picked themselves off the floor. “I think not, SOLDIER First Class Sephiroth. You would deprive us of the honour to do battle with you?”

“No matter what,” Rain told Sephiroth, his heart beating a strange rhythm from the near miss, “don’t let him catch you in his darkness.”

He caught his eye to imprint upon him the severity of the warning. Sephiroth nodded and hefted Masamune in his usual fighting stance, for now forgoing his initial plan of creeping to the President’s office while the Tsviets were distracted.

“Let’s hurry,” was all he had to say on the matter. “We are on a schedule.”

“How rude,” Nero lamented. “Brother and I had been so looking forward to meeting you.”

That was another thing. Where was Weiss? Nero’s brother was easily the strongest Tsviet, the strongest member of Deepground period. Was he waiting upstairs with the President? A foreboding feeling began to seize Rain. But it could just as easily have been caused by the idea of being cornered into fighting alone by Sephiroth’s side, of entrusting his flank to him.

At Rain’s next attack, Nero’s form dissolved in three identical copies of himself. It became evident that they were all very corporeal as bullets grazed skin, tracing patterns of blood where he wasn’t quick enough to run or parry. Sephiroth threw a Fire spell at one and rushed another, carving time for him to find his feet again.

Between the two of them, Nero was soon back to a single copy who disappeared in a portal of darkness. They swivelled back to back, searching every corner of the room for him. Bullets rained on them from above. Nero’s “wings” apparently allowed him to free float as well. Masamune parried every shot in an intricate flashing dance. Rain crouched behind Sephiroth and launched himself at the nearest wall. He rebounded against it and surged against Nero’s flank.

He had considerable experience fighting airborne foes. Soon, Nero cried in pain even as he pushed him away. A Bolt spell from below compounded the enemy’s weakness. He drifted towards the upper level.

Rain tucked in a roll to soften his landing. He exchanged a nod with Sephiroth, on the other side of the foyer, and they each headed for one of the grand sets of carpeted stairs. On the way there, Rain bumped into Azul, diverting the canon blast that could have taken Angeal’s head off. Sephiroth cut a pillar in two quick slashes of Masamune, caught it and swung it for Genesis to use as a springing board and launch himself back at Rosso.

They rushed in the huge office of their target. Nero hovered in the middle of the room, glaring at them, but Rain followed Sephiroth’s line of sight. Someone was cowering behind the ridiculously big desk.

“Now!” Nero said. “Please allow me to unlock my true powers, that I may be allowed to serve my master proudly and dispose of these intruders!”

The words sounded worn and hollow, though maybe Rain was the only one to hear it. He knew that Nero’s true loyalty went to Weiss and Weiss alone. This had to be the chip talking. The chip…

The shadow nodded after a long and careful second of deliberation, but by then Sephiroth had already crossed most of the room in one bound.

“Sephiroth, wait!” Rain shouted, his bad feeling from before surging up in a tidal wave.

Sephiroth froze at his voice, the response so immediate it would have left Rain breathless if he had had any time to consider it.

Instead, Genesis and Rosso suddenly barged in. Both Nero and Sephiroth jumped aside to avoid them. The Crimson Tsviet cried in pain as she was flung to the floor. Genesis landed gracefully. His eyes, bright with battle fire, assessed the situation in a single glance even as Nero’s long sleeves unlocked.

“Why hesitate now, Sephiroth?” he crowed.

Before anyone could stop him, he appeared behind the desk, the Rapier poised to strike. The shadow uncoiled with great strength, throwing him aside with a slash that would have torn him apart if Genesis hadn’t been so quick on his feet.

The fake President drew to their full height. It was a tall figure, dressed in formless black robes and a mask. Not a single patch of skin was visible.

“So this is a Restrictor,” Sephiroth said.

The mask snapped in his direction.

“How do you know this name?” he said in a distinctly male voice.

“Where is the President?” Genesis retorted, getting to his feet with a thunderous frown.

“That is none of your concern, I am afraid.”

It took too long for Rain to understand the unconcerned irony in these words. By then Nero’s tattooed arms were already free and darkness swelled behind Genesis. Sephiroth’s shouted his friend’s name in alarm and dived for him.

“Sephiroth, _no!_ ”

Rain’s scream was in vain. The shadows swallowed both men like a great gaping maw. It dissolved in poisonous mist, leaving bare the spot where they had been standing. A gasp signalled Angeal’s presence at the top of the stairs. His fight won, he had been coming to help only to see both of his friends disappear before his eyes.

“What have you done with them?” he demanded of Nero, flashing teeth.

“They are lost to you. You will never see them again. Such is the price of standing against Shinra.”

Angeal roared in rage and charged him. Rain only had a second to pull him out of the way of another darkness orb. The Restrictor glanced out of the window.

“Enough,” he said suddenly. “We are done here.”

“What?” Rosso protested from where she was struggling to stand. “No! That inferior being shamed me. I want my reven—”

She cut off mid-word with a strangled gasp and clutched her head. The Restrictor had barely turned to look at her.

“I said we go. Now.”

Rosso snarled but threw herself at the nearest window. It shattered under her weight.

“This isn’t over,” she said, glaring at Rain and Angeal, just before plummeting down.

Another crash of glass echoed as Azul copied her from the level below. Rain and Angeal tried to intercept the Restrictor before he joined them, but Nero laid cover fire for his ally, forcing them to duck. Only when his companions were long gone did the man retreat in one of his darkness portals.

Lazard ran up the stairs to join them.

“What happened? The President?”

“Long gone,” Rain ground out. “And we’ll be the same in a much more metaphorical sense if we don’t get out of here.”

He could already hear the painful pitch of Deepground aerial troops’ jet packs. They were all around the tower and coming up fast, and every single damned wall in this room was a window. There was no defensible position.

“But Sephiroth and Genesis…” Angeal tried to argue.

“There is no time!”

Rain jerked Lazard from his feet, throwing the director over his shoulder despite his shout of protest. He took a running leap out of the broken window just as dozens of soldiers appeared all around the floor. There was a split moment of thundering silence before all of their guns fired simultaneously, shattering glass, pelting into the expensive carpets, ripping the gigantic desk to shreds.

Meanwhile, Rain aimed his fall with deadly accuracy and smashed into a dumbfounded infantryman. The grunt’s gun went spiralling down as he fought against the vice-like arm looped around his neck. The jet pack whined under their combined weight and spiralled out of control. They fell forty stories in a sputtering smoke trail before the grunt went slack, unconscious.

Lazard’s white-knuckled fingers were digging in Rain’s shoulders. He took the risk to let the director go so he could stretch himself to the jet pack’s controls. However they were still heavily unbalanced.

To Rain’s great relief, Angeal choose this moment to appear by their sides, wearing a pack he had to have wrestled from another unfortunate soldier. He took Lazard’s weight from Rain, allowing him to divest his victim of the precious gear to claim it for himself. The motor complained, but managed to lift him up just before he smashed into the first roofs below.

By the time Deepground realised the room they were destroying was empty, their targets were tearing down the streets towards the shadows of under-Plate Midgar.

 

* * *

 

Rain’s jet pack failed as they were crossing the sector 6 slums. They found an abandoned warehouse in which to lay low and find their breaths again.

Restless, Rain toured the facilities to check the layout and the exit points. There were plenty of hiding places here: stacks of moulding crates, rusting catwalks, pieces of useless machinery. Yet it did little to quell the paranoia and anger simmering under his skin. He felt laid bare, raw in a way only one man had ever managed to make him feel. His gloves creaked from how tightly he was clenching his fists.

Angeal was waiting for him when he made his way back to the dark little corner they had claimed as their shelter.

“What’s the plan?” he asked immediately.

Rain blinked tiredly at him.

“The plan?”

“To rescue Genesis and Sephiroth. You know what happened to them, right?”

He stared at the SOLDIER for a long, uncomfortable moment. When he turned away, there was no denying the burden coiling around his limbs and weighting his shoulders down.

“There’s no plan. They’re gone.”

Angeal was on him in the next breath, gripping his arms and staring furiously in his eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘there’s no plan’? You always have a plan!” he shouted.

Lazard rose in alarm from his exhausted slump.

“Angeal, stop! Now is not the time for infighting…”

He tried to interfere, but Angeal pushed him away.

“I just got Genesis back,” he barked. “I did my very best to support Sephiroth, just like you asked. We went through hell and back, the three of us, but we’re finally finding our feet again. After all this time, we stand together again! And now you’re telling me it’s over? I refuse to accept this! However ready you are to give up on them, I am not!”

Rain clamped down hard on the fury that surged in him and would have had him respond to Angeal’s wrath in kind. Lazard was right. This wasn’t the time and place, and they would have just been lashing out at each other in the absence of a true culprit. He pried Angeal’s fingers off his arms, already feeling the bruises they had dug in his flesh.

“Nero’s darkness is absolute. It smothers a soul until there’s nothing left of it. We can’t enter it without him swallowing us in, and even if we did, we’d just doom two more people to the same fate. Once you’re in, you don’t get out.”

Angeal’s eyes roved over his expression, looking for a lie or an omission.

In truth, there was one person who could have accomplished such a miracle. However, Vincent and CHAOS, the essence of corrupted Lifestream he carried, were out of their reach. By the time they could put the ex-Turk and Nero in presence, it would be far too late for Genesis and Sephiroth. Rain remembered what few Yuffie had been able to tell him about her short spell in Nero’s darkness. The usually happy-going girl had been shaking and listless with fright. If Vincent hadn’t rescued her, her psyche would have shattered in minutes.

Sephiroth and Genesis were gone, and they’d all have to accept this.

Angeal stepped back. His face was a study in desolation.

“No,” he whispered brokenly.

He bent in two and clutched at his head with a desperate moan. He staggered away, disappearing between forsaken rows of crates. Lazard stared after him in indecision. When he glanced at him, Rain averted his eyes. After a moment more, the director’s footsteps moved away and faded in the empty space of the warehouse.

His jaws felt welded together from how hard he was grinding his teeth. The part of him that would always be Zack longed to trail after his friend and mentor, to share his grief and cry with him. But that wasn’t him. Rain was a stranger to Angeal, and his own tears weren’t something he shared with anyone, even should he have felt the need to spill them today.

And he didn’t, he told himself, even as his eyes tingled unpleasantly, but remained dry. He didn’t feel like crying. He felt like hitting something, like slashing away at monsters in the desolate Midgar plains. Like screaming his frustration to the wind. Like punching someone.

Punching Sephiroth would have felt really good right now.

He leaned his forehead against a cold and damp wall and focused on breathing deeply. He wasn’t so much grieving as he was furious.

How dare he? How dare Sephiroth confound him, twist him around, tie him up in knots like this, only to vanish in the blink of an eye while he was still reeling in confusion? How dare him make all his doubts and his half-confessed hopes moot when he was still struggling to make sense of them?

He had been slowly reforming himself around a new centre, he realised it now. He had been moulding himself in a new shape, stretching his life around Sephiroth because to his thrice-cursed subconscious, Sephiroth was unshakable, something he would always have to watch and watch out for. Only that indestructible pillar was gone and he was left like a sail whose ropes had snapped, twisting around in the sky with no ground in sight.

Sephiroth being gone made no sense to him. He had hoped for it for so long, yet here it was and he had never been so afraid of the void. Without him, half of his soul was suddenly useless remnants of a past long forgotten. Why fear when Fear itself had faded away? Why these walls when no one remained to batter them?

He picked at them with shaking mental fingers. His mind had been through a lot, but where Zack’s remnants were a bitter-sweet and guilty treasure, he would have given a lot to be able to forget the thick barrier that lurked at the back of his thoughts. Yet he knew the price of negligence. These walls had been forged out of pain and tragedy, and every time he so much as brushed against them, memories of blood and failure rose unbidden.

He knew the price they had come at. But against the too fresh emptiness in his heart…

He didn’t allow time to second-guess himself. He tore the walls down.

 

* * *

 

Genesis screamed. His voice was nearly drowned by the harsh whispers and echoing silence of the darkness, but it still cut off a new part of Sephiroth’s soul. The shadows ate away at their essences, a phantom agony made all the more biting by the absence of wounds to focus on and cradle. Sephiroth endured a new wave of pain with gritted teeth. His hand clutched Genesis’ so hard they both felt bones shifting under the strain, yet even that did nothing to grant them reprieve.

“You shouldn’t have come for me, my friend,” Genesis panted when he could find the breath to form the words.

Sephiroth grunted, unwilling to unsolder his jaws to answer such an asinine remark. Enough of his contempt filtered through the sound that Genesis attempted a pale smile. Sephiroth jerked as another seizure shook him to the core. He allowed Genesis to lean his head against his shoulder, too wrung out to feel anything but relief at the contact.

“This is the end,” Genesis whispered, and as he glanced down, Sephiroth acknowledged that he was right. The shadows had started gnawing at their forms, dissolving their outlines in hazy mist.

“It’s been an honour, Genesis,” he found the strength to say.

A squeeze of his hand was the only answer he needed.

But as he waited for the next attack, it wasn’t pain that came to him.

His lurch dislodged Genesis, who snapped his head up and gasped. Sephiroth’s eyes had gone wide and unseeing. His slit pupils had contracted to slim lines in a sea of searing, pulsing blue-green.

Sephiroth didn’t hear his unnerved friend calling his name. There was another voice here, a sliver of a sound slipping through the back of his thoughts, pleading, imploring. He turned, searching for it. He stumbled on a direction in which it seemed a fraction louder. He wrenched forward, pulling Genesis after him.

“What?” his friend gasped. “What is it? What are you doing?”

“It’s calling for me.”

His eyes remained too vibrant, colour shifting in them in a way Genesis had never seen before. He thought about stopping him, about snapping him out of whatever spell he was under. This was probably a trap, another weapon of this Planet forsaken place.

But agony tore through him once more and the intention was lost. What use would that be? They would die either way. If this was a trap, then maybe their suffering would end sooner.

_Over here_ , whispered the voice in Sephiroth’s mind, steadily growing stronger. It faded in and out of his hearing range, allowing him to snatch bits and pieces of its words. _I’m here. Please! Sephiroth. You can’t let it be the end. You’re worth so much more than this. I’m here… I’ll always be here…_

It felt like a prayer.

 

* * *

 

Angeal was lost in a heavy shroud of sorrow, his thoughts turned inward. That’s why Lazard was the first to hear engines approaching the warehouse. He touched a hand to the shoulder of his once subordinate.

“Do you hear that?”

To his relief, Angeal’s head lifted. The listlessness vanished from his face, replaced by a frown.

“Vehicles. We’ve been found already?”

He turned away, hurrying back in his tracks with Lazard sticking close behind him.

“Rain! We’ve got to mo…”

Angeal froze, so suddenly that Lazard collided with him.

“What? What is it?”

The strange blond man wearing a stolen SOLDIER uniform stood where they had left him. There was nothing unusual with him at first glance, except for the fact his eyes were closed and he had not stirred at their arrival. Angeal tilted his head.

“Rain?”

When he received no answer, he tentatively stepped forward. Rain’s eyes opened. Lazard and Angeal gasped in unison. Green merged brilliantly with Rain’s usual blue, pulsing to an unknown beat, and the pupils had become narrow black slits.

He ignored them, staring into empty space. His hand lifted as if to reach for someone who was not there. It was held out, open in invitation.

“I’m here.” It passed through his lips in a barely audible whisper.

A long suspended moment of silence echoed in its wake.

Then purple shadows swelled around his fingers, twining furiously.

Just as Lazard stepped back and Angeal forward in horror, a gloved hand surged from their midst and clasped Rain’s. The darkness inflated until it was tall enough to spit out two well-known figures, then clamped down and disappeared like a sullen mouth.

Genesis immediately staggered to the floor, his legs too weak to carry him. He was drenched in sweat. His eyes, too wide in a gaunt and livid face, stared in incomprehension at the friend whose other hand he clutched like a lifeline.

Sephiroth and Rain didn’t move, their worlds seemingly reduced to each other. The spell broke when Rain blinked, long and slow like a man waking from a dream. His eyelids unveiled unadulterated blue circling round pupils. He gasped, went white as a sheet and collapsed, unconscious. Sephiroth snapped out of it in time to make a fumbled recovery, but only managed to stop him from cracking his head on the ground as his own limbs failed him.

Before anyone could do a thing more, Tseng appeared in the half-light a broken window cast on the cement floor. In the confusion, no one had heard the warehouse doors open. The Turk gave no outward reaction to whatever sight they must have presented.

“There you all are. We must be going now, before Deepground finds your tracks. Follow me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe there is no cliffhanger in this chapter? I can’t believe there is no cliffhanger in this chapter. See you all on January 16th. Joyeux Noël et bonnes fêtes de fin d’année !


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking the time to rework these a little before publishing is great. I'm much prouder of this chapter now!

The plan to abduct President Shinra was a failure. The Turks’ involvement had been discovered and, though most of them had made it out of Deepground’s grasp in time, they too were now wanted criminals.

And as the grand finale to Sephiroth’s streak of bad news, Rain had decided to hate his guts.

“Look,” the most famous SOLDIER on the Planet all but pleaded as he followed the time traveller’s power walk down one of the corridors of their safehouse in Kalm. “I’m just trying to thank you for your help. You did save our lives back there.”

Rain stopped and whirled on him. His eyes flashed in anger.

“You are welcome,” he said in a seething tone that implied he was anything but. “And for the record: I’m never, _never_ doing that again. Not in a million years, not for the whole damned Planet. So unless you liked the darkness, I suggest you actually watch your ass next time we run into Nero.”

He was gone before he could formulate a reply. Sephiroth sighed and pinched his brow in frustration. He turned back to the youngest Strife, waiting behind him with a sympathetic wince.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the teenager said.

Sephiroth waved off the unwarranted apology.

“I don’t suppose you know what set him off this time?”

Strife shrugged awkwardly.

“I wish I did. He’s been acting really weird ever since he woke up. Getting him to talk is like pulling teeth. I heard what you guys said happened, but if I try to ask him about it, about how he managed to get you out of there, he just gets this weird look and completely forget I’m here to start pacing.”

“I just wish I knew what I did to earn this treatment,” Sephiroth growled. “I thought we had gotten past this.”

“Well, if it’s any comfort, I don’t think he’s angry with you. In fact, I don’t think he’s angry at all. He’s just… spooked. Really spooked.”

He tilted his head, considering. No one could pretend to understand what went on in Rain’s head better than his “little brother”. If Strife thought he was lashing out out of fear, he was probably right.

“You think I should give him some space?”

“That would be best. He’ll have a breakdown or two about it, then he’ll remember he has other, actual world-ending problems on his hands and you can, uh, do exactly what you did last time he went in one of his moods.”

Sephiroth’s lips quirked.

“Target his blind spot?”

“That seemed to work really well,” Strife chuckled.

He huffed in amusement.

“Very well, I will bid my time. Tell him we’re having a meeting in half an hour.”

“Yes sir.” Strife snapped him a salute that was only half joking and went to do as asked.

At least, regardless of any personal crisis, Rain dutifully turned up for the strategic session. They gathered in the safehouse basement, the only room big enough to accommodate them all. It doubled as a garage and probably ran under a few of the neighbouring houses considering the impressive amount of vehicles and equipment the Turks had stored there.

Lazard was present, if only because he had nowhere else to go. Genesis, still pale from their ordeal the day before, stuck close to Angeal’s side. Their friend didn’t seem any more ready than him to let him out of his sight. Zack watched them worriedly even as he kept an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders. Rain came in nearly last and slunk with Vincent in the shadows behind Strife and the Lockhart girl. Sephiroth noted his arrival even as he made sure to keep his eyes averted.

He glanced at everyone assembled, surprised to find that Tseng had yet to join them. The Turk was usually very punctual.

The basement door finally opened one last time, but instead of the single man they had expected, two came in.

“Veld,” Sephiroth said, straightening and moving to greet the leader of the Turks.

“Sephiroth,” the man returned, shaking his hand with a firm grip he had always respected. He had forgone the black suit his department favoured, but did not appear any less stern. “Given the situation, I thought I would come liaise with you in person.”

“Of course. Thank you for granting us the use of this building. We were about to begin.”

Veld nodded and stood to the side, Tseng only ever one step from his shoulder. He caught Lazard’s eye. SOLDIER’s ex-director nodded in greeting and nervously pushed his glasses farther up his nose in a transparent excuse to break eye contact.

Sephiroth noted the exchange and returned his attention to the matter at end.

“Our operation yesterday was a failure,” he said without bothering with any adornments. “The President was long gone by the time we made it there. Do the Turks know if he had any tip-off?”

Veld turned back to him.

“It is more probable that he had moved away out of general paranoia long before we ever devised this plan. For months before Deepground’s reveal, the President had actually been more and more careful with calling executives to his office. I cannot even tell for sure when he was last seen there.”

“Then where will he have gone? Would Deepground’s Mako Reactor 0 be a sound theory?”

This question he aimed at Rain. Although he looked sullen, he nodded.

“I don’t see why not. It’s hard to reach and he would be surrounded by thousands of guards completely devoted to his protection. Sounds like a place he’d be dying to go these days.”

“Thousands?” Zack exclaimed. “How many poor bastards _are_ in Deepground?”

Rain hesitated.

“I’m not sure,” he said finally. “Maybe I’m exaggerating the numbers.”

Sephiroth took that to mean he had no idea which fraction of Deepground was already as he remembered and which one would have been built in the incoming years.

“In that case, it’s too dangerous to attempt to reach him down there, at least until we have more information on their defences. We need to change our angle.”

“That means going after the Restrictors,” Tseng pointed out.

Sephiroth glanced pointedly at Rain. The man sighed, but acquiesced.

“We need to keep at least one alive.”

“One should make them more manageable than four,” Genesis said. “All that’s left is to pin them down.”

“Deepground will be expanding,” Lazard cut in. “They’ve already got Midgar and Junon under their thumb, but they’ve been sending troops to more and more cities, along with small battalions of regular infantrymen and SOLDIERs. The ones you call ‘Restrictors’ have established themselves as field commanders. I only ever saw three of them, though.”

“We can assume the President will be keeping the fourth close by,” Veld suggested.

“We’ll need some way to smoke him out,” Sephiroth agreed. “Getting rid of the other three seems a fair strategy. We’ll watch Shinra’s troops and attack where they don’t expect it. Ideally, targeting all three of them at the same time would give us the advantage of surprise. Veld…”

The Turk nodded.

“You can count on us. Even without our resources, we are Turks. My men will know every troop movement before it even occurs.”

“Thank you. Zack, Kunsel is our only inside man left.”

“Yeah, no problem. Kunsel always keeps his ear to the ground. Now that he can contact me, I’ll keep you updated.”

“Very well. Then we are done for now. Let’s all rest and prepare for the days to come.”

 

* * *

 

“Rain?”

He flinched before he could help it. However, he realised even as he turned around that this voice wasn’t the one he sought to avoid at all costs. Aerith smiled bemusedly at him. He relaxed.

“You seem a little tense,” she teased. “Are you alright?”

He shrugged and glanced around them.

The others had deserted the basement after the meeting. The man named Veld had attempted to come talk to him, probably as curious about him and his origin as any other Turk he had met so far, but surprisingly, Vincent had headed him off at the pass. Rain had seen the way Veld’s eyes had widened with something like recognition when he had looked at his friend. They must have known each other from Vincent’s Turk days. They were off in a corner of the garage now, talking in hushed voices.

Rain granted them their privacy by staying a fair distance away, though he too had chosen to stay down and busy himself with checking the condition of the various cars and motorcycles. He had seen Sephiroth leave with Lazard and decided here was just as good a place as any in the too small house.

He leaned against the front of the jeep whose bonnet he had just opened.

“I’m fine. Just a bit jumpy,” he added when she tilted her head with a patient look that said she didn’t believe him.

She hummed noncommittally.

“You know,” she wheedled, “whatever you did the other day, the Planet didn’t like it…”

He groaned in dismay. Of course the Planet would have an opinion on that. She seemed to have an opinion on anything pertaining to Sephiroth and him, these days.

“Yeah, well, I’m never doing it again, so…” he said, more curt than he had intended.

Luckily, Aerith didn’t take offence. She laid a soothing hand on his arm.

“It’s okay. You did what you had to do. The Planet may not understand this, but I do. You saved two people. That makes you a good person, not a bad one.”

Her view was simplistic and didn’t even begin to address the real issue here, but he still felt himself wind down under her approval. He nodded gratefully. It had been a while since he had had the opportunity to spend time with Aerith like this, and now he remembered why talking to her had always been so easy.

“How are you doing, Aerith?”

“Oh, you know… I’m managing.”

She paced a few feet away, looking over the cars. Rain’s heart went out to her. Just like Tifa and Cloud, she was much too young to be involved in such a mess. Her two friends at least had combat training, and what Tifa lacked in worldly knowledge, she made up for in attitude. But Aerith had none of that. She depended entirely on them for her survival.

“I’m sorry I dragged you in this,” he whispered guiltily.

“Don’t be silly,” she said, whirling on him. “I want to be here. Who else would make sure you all stay out of trouble? I have to watch over Zack, or he’ll get distracted and never finish my flower wagon.”

Always trying to cheer everyone up. Rain pushed off the jeep.

“We should find you a weapon.”

“Oh no.” She shook her head, her eyes wide. “No, no. Fighting is not for me, Rain.”

“To defend yourself,” he pleaded. “You don’t have to kill. A staff would be okay. Zack and I could train you.”

She had been completely at ease with a staff when he had met her, very proficient even, but he swallowed the words back. He wasn’t going to force his expectations of them on anyone, he had promised himself that.

“Well, I… I don’t know. I’d rather… No, it’s silly,” she sighed. “You’re right, I can’t count on someone else always being there to save me. I don’t want to be a burden.”

He cut her off by prodding her gently in the ribs, teasing a giggle out of her.

“You could never be a burden, Aerith,” he told her sincerely. “What were you going to say?”

She clasped her hands and gnawed at her bottom lip.

“I just… I was thinking if I could be useful without fighting… But that’s just wishful thinking, I know. Life doesn’t work like that.”

He stared at her, long enough that most people would have become uncomfortable. Maybe it would be okay to break his promise, just this once.

“You know…” he hesitated. “You have a power that none of us have…”

“You mean, talking to the Planet? That’s not really useful in most situations, though. Is it?”

“She could heal,” he blurted out.

He would have regretted it, but for the way her eyes widened in fascination. Still, he took a step back and a deep breath.

He avoided talking to anyone about their future selves. Zack had tried to prod once, jokingly, but had quickly backed up when he had found himself unable to answer, his throat too clogged up to even make a sound. How did you confess to someone you should have been the cause of their death?

“Future me? She could…”

“Heal without a Materia,” he confirmed. “Better than someone with a Materia. Using her connection to the Planet.”

“Oh… Was that useful?”

“It was very useful,” he assured her. “It was very hard for us after—”

He cut himself off abruptly, cursing his tongue for running off on him at such a time. Had he really nearly mentioned her death so carelessly? How much of a callous idiot could he be?

He only realised it had become hard to breathe when Aerith hugged him out of the blue and the knot of panic in his chest loosened. When she looked at him, her eyes held the ageless compassion and wisdom of her people. It was the first time he saw that look in this young a face, but he felt foolish.

Aerith probably understood a lot more of his past than what he was saying. He shouldn’t forget that she had felt the death of her adopted mother’s husband when she was still just a child. Young Aerith may be, but she wasn’t sheltered. She knew more about loss, hope, pain and joy than one would have given her credit for.

She smiled at him before withdrawing.

“I’ll try that, then,” she said like he hadn’t nearly had a nervous breakdown. “That’s something I’d very much want to learn. Even though I’m not sure how to start…”

She stared at him, gently drawing him back to the present by forcing him to focus on her unasked question.

“I… I don’t know how she did it. I don’t think I would have understood, even if she had tried to explain.”

She hummed, pensive, and took to walking around, hands linked behind her back. He followed her.

“It’s a bit lonely,” she confessed in a soft voice. “Not having anyone to ask for advice about this…”

A flash of inspiration stopped Rain in his tracks.

“I don’t know any other Cetra,” he said. “But I know where to find someone who knows a lot about the Planet and the Lifestream.”

 

* * *

 

Veld’s appearance had clearly shaken Lazard. Sephiroth had taken him aside to reassure him that the Turks knew better than to turn an ally away now, even if they were aware of his old offences against the company, which was uncertain. It only half seemed to work, though. Sephiroth supposed he could understand. Lazard had little to offer to the cause except information that would soon become outdated.

It was something of a relief when Zack joined them in the house’s study and the conversation turned to SOLDIER. However, the change of mood didn’t last long.

“It’s not just Kunsel,” Zack said, face unusually grim. He was doing squats, as he was wont to do when he couldn’t find it in himself to stay still. “I just hate the idea that we left all the guys behind. We saw how Deepground treated Rain when we infiltrated, and HQ was nearly empty. Can you imagine how hard everyone must have it the rest of the time?”

“It’s been… a problem,” Lazard admitted, and though he struggled to stay composed Sephiroth heard his voice waver a little.

Zack must have noticed too, because he froze mid-move.

“Lazard?”

The director sighed and bent over his knees, fingers laced before him. The light reflected off his glasses, hiding his eyes. For a while, he stayed silent.

“If you feel guilty over this, how much worse do you think I have it? I abandoned my post, abandoned them all. No matter my griefs against the company, I had a duty to SOLDIER; I failed them. It would have been different if any of you had still been there. You would have picked up the pieces. But there is no one they can trust, now. They were certainly wrong to trust me.”

An unwelcome prickle of remorse made its way up Sephiroth’s spine.

He tried to shake it off. He firmly believed that every man and woman was responsible for their own choices, their own fate. He refused to be accountable for anyone’s but his own.

However, many of these men had been inspired to join Shinra by his example. He could have served the company with less zeal. He could have left sooner. It had been his decision to preserve the status quo for as long as he had.

He resisted the urge to slam a fist on the arm of his armchair, suddenly angry.

“Enough,” he snapped. “We could drown in useless shame or actually work on resolving the problem. The only thing we can do for them now is get rid of Deepground.”

Zack and Lazard stared, taken aback by his temper. Zack laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

“Ah… Haha… I guess we sounded like real defeatists right now. Sorry Sephiroth.”

Did he believe Sephiroth unaffected? He didn’t correct him, too frustrated at himself. Their little revolution needed him to be strong and decisive, not crippled by self-doubt. It was just as well if no one realized the admonishment was also aimed at himself.

Which was of course when he looked up and found Cloud in the doorway.

The man was staring too, but with a different flavour than Zack and Lazard. There was surprise in his eyes, and a hint of something else that promptly disappeared when he remembered he didn’t actually want to feel anything positive toward Sephiroth right now. Nevertheless, Sephiroth had the sinking feeling he had been seen right through.

Cloud took one step in the study. The others turned at his entrance.

“What is Cosmo Canyon’s current situation?” he asked Lazard, effectively dousing Sephiroth’s hope that he might be approaching him of his own volition.

Lazard blinked.

“Cosmo Canyon? Well, last I heard, there was no immediate plan to send troops there… It’s small and devoid of any precious resource or strategic importance. I doubt they will bother for a while.”

Cloud nodded, looking relieved. The young Miss Gainsborough, who had been hovering behind him, stepped up to his side. Her appearance surprised Sephiroth. She held herself differently, a novel trace of steel in her spine.

“I’d like to go there,” she said.

“Go to Cosmo Canyon?” Zack repeated, and Sephiroth could tell he was baffled as much by the request as by the fresh determination in his girlfriend’s eyes. “What do you want with that place? There is nothing out there.”

“There is two people Rain tells me could help me learn more about my Cetra abilities. I know it’s hardly the best time to bother you all about this, but… as it is, all I’ll be able to do in the fights to come is hide and pray everyone will be okay. And I can do that just as well from Cosmo Canyon.”

“You can’t just go there alone!” Zack argued, approching her.

He was sending loaded glances at Cloud, incredulous and maybe a bit angry. Cloud blushed in return, but tipped his chin in stubbornness.

Sephiroth felt unnerved. He had observed strange dynamics between these three since the very start, although he had stayed out of it since it didn’t concern him in the least. Now, though, it left him a bit sick in the stomach. There was no way this could end well, and they had too much to do to lose time to petty romantic struggles.

“I’ll be fine! You heard Mr Deusericus, it’s not dangerous.”

For all of Aerith’s bravado, it escaped no one that her voice shook a little.

“Yeah, for now! Plus you can’t travel alone, you know nearly nothing about the world outside Midgar,” Zack countered, hitting her main fear if her hesitation was any indication.

“I can accompany her,” Cloud said.

“Absolutely not,” Sephiroth rebuked instantly. “I need you here, prepared to move with us at any time. Your knowledge of Deepground is too precious to waste.”

Cloud glared at him, but he met his eyes without flinching. The man was clearly gearing up for an argument. After a moment, though, he seemed to grudgingly concede that it was a reasonable demand.

“Then Cloud and Tifa,” he ground out. “I’d rather send them away from the main cities anyway.”

Sephiroth considered it with a pensive hum.

“Good point. We don’t know how long this place will stay safe for us.”

“But, Aerith…!” Zack pleaded, faced with abandonment from all sides.

“Zack, please… It’s something I have to do. I’ll be careful, okay? And I’ll have Cloud and Tifa with me, plus Rain’s friends. We’ll be fine.”

Zack wavered for a long minute, but finally caved under his girlfriend’s kind green eyes. He heaved a huge sigh.

“Alright, if it’s so important to you… I’d like to come with…”

“No, you do what you need to do,” she said, smiling. “People are counting on you here. Your friend Kunsel is still waiting. I will be fine, and you will be too, and before you know it we’ll go back to check on the flowers and have you finish that wagon.”

“Yes ma’am.”

He snapped her a mock salute. She pecked him on the cheek with a giggle and towed him out of the room, presumably to go find Strife and Lockhart. Zack went with one last unreadable look at Cloud.

Cloud himself quickly escaped to the corridor with barely a polite nod and a paranoid glance at Sephiroth. No doubt, he expected to be called back.

Sephiroth stared after him and kept silent.

 

* * *

 

Aerith, Tifa and Cloud departed the next day in one of the cars with the promise to check in regularly with Zack or Rain.

Rain had thought about asking Vincent to go with them too, but had stopped himself. He couldn’t coddle Cloud and Tifa. They knew how to defend themselves, and they would never forgive him if he tried to deny it just because they were unenhanced. He needed to let them find their own feet, grow up and become the adults they were meant to be. Besides, they would meet with Nanaki soon enough. He and Bugenhagen would watch over them.

While the three teenagers leaving meant the small safehouse became less claustrophobic for its remaining inhabitants, it also became more solemn. Everyone was on edge, ready for action as soon as it would become necessary.

Zack in particular seemed to suffer from the lack of light conversation. To relax a bit, he finally coaxed Rain into that sparring match he had agreed on before the whole Deepground debacle.

Rain had not had a friendly spar with anyone in years… long enough that he didn’t even remember it. He usually fought to survive, not for fun. But to his surprise, fighting Zack _was_ fun. He had had a long time to develop his own techniques since Zack’s memories had first become part of his soul. As a result, their styles were similar but different enough to make the whole thing challenging. He was in a good enough mood that he didn’t even react when he noticed Sephiroth in the basement, watching them from the sidelines.

By the time they decided to put an end to it, they were both smiling and coated in a light sheen of sweat. Whatever anger Zack may have still held against him for sending Aerith away seemed forgotten. He was glad. For all he loved Zack, Aerith had strength of her own and she deserved the right to make informed decisions.

“That was cool! We should do that more often,” Zack said, grabbing the hand he was holding out to help him back on his feet.

“Sure. Tomorrow?”

“You know it!”

Zack clapped him on the shoulder and bounded up the stairs. Rain sheathed his swords and started after him.

“Was he your teacher?”

Sephiroth’s voice stopped him in his tracks. His expression shuttered. He had thought by now they had an unspoken agreement to ignore each other. It had certainly held true the past few days.

“What?”

“Zack. Your style is remarkably close to his.”

He couldn’t have known what a sore point he was prodding with this line of questioning, but it didn’t stop Rain from resenting him. A stiff shrug was the only answer he gave.

There was a second of silence. He was about to consider himself home free and proceed on his way out when Sephiroth sighed. He risked a glance at him over his shoulder, surprised by the depth of frustration the man had just let slip. Sephiroth was leaning against one of the cars, arms crossed and head bowed. As soon as Rain looked at him, his thin lips and taut brow smoothed out and he straightened, slipping with ease in the role of the distant leader.

For the first time, Rain realized how much of his usually hidden personality Sephiroth displayed to their close-knit group. The idea jarred him badly.

“Nevermind. We need to discuss something.”

He turned, mutely giving him his attention.

“When Tseng’s warning comes, we’ll need to move quickly. We need to strike three Restrictors simultaneously. That means three teams, and fortunately, there are six of us. I had assumed you would remain adamant in sticking close to me, but your attitude belies your initial statement of intention. If you can’t stomach going alone with me on this mission, I need to know so I can make the necessary adjustments to the plan.”

Panic briefly rushed to his head. He hadn’t thought of that. As long as they remained here, they could avoid each other to their heart’s content, and they had the others to play buffer on the rare occasions they couldn’t. But on the road? While they fought the Restrictor?

He deflated, effectively doused.

“No,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his head in unease. “I’ll be… It’s fine.”

Sephiroth arched a doubtful eyebrow.

“Are you certain? Up until now, we’ve fought well together, but we can’t afford to be distracted for this.”

“It’s fine, Sephiroth!”

He cut himself off, realizing he was raising his voice.

His sigh was explosive. He strode to a nearby car and perched on its front, feet braced on the bumper. Sephiroth once more leaned back, content to wait in silence while he searched for words.

“I’m not really angry with you,” he said finally, and it felt like dragging shards of glass from his throat.

Sephiroth nodded. He wasn’t looking at him, instead staring straight ahead.

“I mean, I know objectively you didn’t do anything wrong, I just…”

He trailed off, unsure of what he was trying to say.

“Find me to be a convenient outlet for your anger?” Sephiroth suggested.

“What?” he gaped, horrified. “No. No, Sephiroth, this is not… I’m not looking for a scapegoat or… Just, no.”

Sephiroth turned to him then. Rain forced himself not to shy away from eye contact, however much he wanted to. After a careful examination, Sephiroth said:

“Then this is about my future self.”

There was no point in denying it, not when he sounded so sure of his conclusion, and not when Rain couldn’t even repress a shudder in response. He looked down. The remains of his mental shields, hastily patched together, burned at the back of his mind. His mouth tasted like ash.

“I’m doing my best to understand your point of view, Cloud, so please try to return the courtesy. Being held responsible for the acts another version of myself committed—”

“I know,” he muttered. “I do. I’m trying.”

“You weren’t trying very hard these last few days.”

He cringed. No matter how much he’d like to deny it, Sephiroth was right. He had been unfair and unreasonable, had showered him with unwarranted aggressiveness, and in return Sephiroth had been nothing but patient. He had given him space until it had become necessary to call him on his bullshit, and even then, he had done so with more tolerance than Rain had earned.

He should apologize, he knew. Yet the words remained stuck in his throat.

He stared at his hands, opened and closed them a few times.

“I know you all wonder what I am,” he said abruptly. “Since I am neither SOLDIER nor Deepground.”

Sephiroth stared at him, baffled, but apparently elected to humour him.

“Correct. Our leading theory is that you are the product of a unique experiment, similar to Genesis, Angeal and I.”

He made a distressed sound. A sad parody of a smile twisted his lips.

“No. Nothing even as deliberate as that.”

Sephiroth frowned. Unable to face him, Rain got up to pace. He couldn’t believe he was talking about this. Sephiroth was the worst person to reveal this to. And yet, he heard himself go on.

“Do you know why Hojo is so desperate to get you back, Sephiroth? It’s because out of the three of you, you’re the only one whose DNA makes cloning, creating copies, impossible.”

He came to a stuttering halt and gulped.

“But if you’re ever lost to him, it won’t stop him from trying.”

“I… don’t understand what you’re trying to say, Cloud,” Sephiroth said, but his voice wavered for a second.

“Don’t you?”

He made no reply to that. No sound, not a word. But when Rain dared to glance at him, he was not prepared for what he saw.

Because he had expected outrage from Sephiroth, he had expected his contempt for Hojo to flare up. He had not expected the smooth skin to turn such a chalky white, nor the terrible understanding with which the man suddenly regarded him.

“We… have a connection,” Sephiroth said in a voice he barely recognized.

Rain found his throat was sore, his chest too tight. A strange emotion gripped him.

It felt like gratitude.

Sephiroth’s horror was tangible and he had never been so pitifully grateful in his life.

It’s why his next words were out of his mouth before he could think about it, before he could realize how foolish an admission it was, how dangerous.

“ _He_ used it to control me.”

He waited for the fear to strike, the panic at having handed his worst ennemy such a perfect weapon. But Sephiroth flinched like he had struck him and he could have collapsed from the relief.

“Cloud! I would never… I would never…”

Had he ever seen this man at such a loss for words?

“Swear you won’t,” Rain said, and the order vibrated with so much of his soul he felt raw and exposed.

Sephiroth straightened and looked at him with searing green eyes in a too pale face.

“I will never invade your mind, Cloud, nor will I ever force you to act against your will. You have my word.”

It was just that: words. They didn’t have to mean anything, especially not in that mouth. But suddenly, the world was a little bit brighter, a little bit warmer.

“I believe you,” Cloud Strife said in a baffled whisper.

His hands shook as he turned away. The sound of his footsteps echoed in the vast basement. Then the creak of the stairs, the click of the door opening. The latch as it closed. Silence.

He remembered to breathe.

 

* * *

 

Tseng reported only a few short hours later.

“There has been more and more unrest in Wutai since Deepground came to light. The situation is becoming critical. Wutai has hardly had enough time to settle after the war ended in February. Shinra would have waited to have a strong enough grip on the West Continent before tackling them, but they can’t let it fester anymore. The Restrictor in Midgar is preparing to move out with troops. That leaves only the one in Junon on the East Continent. The third is busy conquering the West Continent one town at a time, but it seems he’s encountering resistance in Corel.”

“Meaning the troops in Wutai will have no direct supply line,” Genesis crowed. “Excellent!”

“This is a golden opportunity,” Angeal agreed. “We could hardly have asked for a better chance.”

Everyone turned to Sephiroth. Realizing he had kept silent until now, he forced himself to focus. Not staring at Cloud where he stood next to Valentine was a struggle.

“Yes,” he said. “Let’s move out tonight. All three teams can be in place by the time the troops will set foot in Wutai.”

“The Wutai team will need to move quickly,” Genesis said, “but once there, it’ll be easy to take advantage of the chaos. I’ll go.”

Angeal immediately frowned. Sephiroth echoed the sentiment. Wutai was where Genesis had deserted Shinra, led by Hollander’s lies and his growing sickness of the mind. He had no desire to see him go back there either.

“All three of us are well-known by Wutai’s population,” he argued. “We don’t need them recognizing us and opposing our efforts.”

“So I’ll go,” Zack blessedly jumped in. “I know a little of Wutai, but I didn’t participate in much of the war. They won’t recognize me.”

“Vincent can pass for Wutaian if necessary,” Veld added. “He should go with you.”

He glanced at Vincent in apology, as if belatedly realizing he should not have talked in his stead, but the ex-Turk nodded, silently accepting the arrangement. If he hadn’t been otherwise preoccupied, Sephiroth might have wondered at the exchange.

Genesis grudgingly settled. As it was all very logical, he could not fault them for trying to coddle him. Angeal relaxed and smiled at Sephiroth.

“The other teams?”

As if Sephiroth could not see how little he wanted to be separated from Genesis at this point. Still, he glanced at Cloud with something that he would have been hard-pressed to describe as anything but nerves. The man seemed to have composed himself since their last conversation, but the corner of his eyes were pinched with fresh mental exhaustion. Yet, to his surprise, he attempted a pale shadow of a smile under his scrutiny.

“Still fine.”

This was the most benign reaction walking over one of Cloud’s triggers had ever earned him. If anything, it appeared that _Sephiroth_ was the most affected one this time around.

Lazard shifted awkwardly next to him, making him realize his silence had been noticed. Genesis looked curious while Zack was glancing between Cloud and him and seemed one moment away from launching in a series of squats.

“How well do you know the West Continent?” he finally asked.

Cloud shrugged.

“Just as well as the East one. I’m used to travelling a lot. Corel is not… I’ve never been there, but I have… an acquaintance in town.”

He was being mindful of Tseng and Veld’s sharp ears. An old friend, then. One who would unfortunately not recognize him. Still, it could give them an in with the locals.

“Then we’ll go to Corel. Angeal, Genesis, you’ve got Junon.”

Angeal grinned.

“Well, that’s at least familiar ground…” Genesis said.

“We keep in contact. Tseng, Veld, Lazard, if you could notify us of anything you can get about the troops in the three locations. Team Wutai, we’ll be waiting for your signal to launch the offensive.”

“You got it!” Zack agreed, punching his fist in the air.

Sephiroth surveyed his group of ragtag comrades. Three ex-SOLDIERs, three ex-Turks, a bureaucrat and a walking enigma. He had all he needed to change the world.

“Pack up your gear and let’s go.”


	16. Chapter 15

Angeal and Genesis parted from the rest of them in Junon, vanishing in the city’s shadows. The two other teams were left scrambling to find transportation to the West Continent in a town slowly slipping under Deepground’s dominion. Thankfully, Tseng’s contacts came through for them. It did mean that they travelled hidden in a ship’s hold, but Sephiroth wasn’t complaining.

He would have liked to talk to Cloud with the benefit of Zack and Valentine’s presences, to test where they were now standing with each other. But the man spent the whole crossing sullen and withdrawn, only answering terse monosyllables to Zack’s conversational overtures.

A belated reaction to what he had revealed to Sephiroth? He deemed more prudent to let him get it out of his system while they still had the opportunity of distance.

The second day after the launch of their operation dawned to find them in Costa del Sol. It was still too early for the tourists to be out, so they had no audience when they met with a shady redhead and his dark-skinned companion in a parking lot near the harbour.

“Good luck, yo,” the redhead muttered, throwing car keys at Sephiroth and Angeal before slinking back from where he had come.

Despite the absence of black suits and sunglasses, the two men were familiar to Sephiroth.

Their two new vehicles were a dusty pickup truck and an old jeep. Having farther to travel in as little time as possible, team Wutai got the jeep. They gathered together for quick goodbyes.

“Don’t make a detour to see your girlfriend, Zack,” Sephiroth warned.

“I know, I know,” Zack sighed, dejected. “It’s just a shame, Cosmo Canyon is practically on the way! But I’ll be good, promise. The hardest part will be crossing to Wutai. Commerce had barely been re-established after the war. Even the Turks didn’t have enough time to burrow their talons over there.”

“If all else fails,” Cloud said, speaking up for the first time since they left Junon, “head to Rocket Town.”

“What-Town now?”

Cloud appeared taken aback.

“Ah… It’s not a town yet? On the plain west of the Nibel mountain, there should be a small settlement. Shinra scientists.”

“That’s not on the coast,” Valentine said, frowning.

“No, but I know a man there. Cid Highwind. By now he’ll have finished building a state of the art airship for Shinra.”

“So what, we steal it?”

Cloud had a strange expression, somewhere between a wince and a smile.

“Uh, no. I wouldn’t recommend it. But tell him that Deepground will confiscate it as soon as they get there. That should make him froth at the mouth enough to help you.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Valentine asked.

Cloud shrugged, unconcerned.

“Then add that Deepgroud will definitely cancel the Space Exploration program. You’ll be in Wutai in the blink of an eye.”

Zack and Valentine soon climbed into their car and departed. Sephiroth watched them until they disappeared in the street, bracing himself for the vast unknown that would be a few days spent exclusively in Cloud’s company.

When he turned around, the man was right behind him.

“I’ll drive,” he said, extending an expectant hand for the keys.

Try as he might, Sephiroth couldn’t stop himself from taking offence. He frowned.

“I don’t know to whom you have been talking, but my driving is perfectly adequate, Cloud. If you can’t even trust me with this, I hardly see how we’ll be able to work together.”

Cloud blinked. His lips curved up like he was genuinely amused, startling Sephiroth.

“I have motion sickness, Sephiroth. I feel better when I’m driving. You don’t want me in a crabby mood for the rest of the journey.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling like an idiot. Of course he would have the same ailment as Strife, why hadn’t he thought of that? It perfectly explained his behaviour in the boat.

He passed the keys without any more arguing and circled the truck to the passenger side. Cloud settled in the driver’s seat, threw the car into gear and set them on their way with the obvious ease of long habit. This, too, surprised Sephiroth. He didn’t know why. He remembered Strife mentioning his brother’s skill with mechanics.

He found himself staring at the unconscious grace in Cloud’s movements and had to force himself to look out the windshield.

 

* * *

 

Rain found himself unwinding the longer he drove. His stomach had ceased its boat-induced rolling and the familiarity of the dusty road and the engine’s purr did wonders for his mood. He was so used to travelling that he inevitably grew tense when he was confined to one place for too long.

He hesitated a moment before cranking his window open. Sephiroth made no objection to the cold December air that drafted in the cabin. Rain relaxed further, letting the wind play with his hair. It felt nearly as good as being back on his bike. Sephiroth was a surprisingly pleasant companion. Even the silence between them was comfortable.

Rain had no doubt he would have felt much differently about the situation if it hadn’t been for that last fateful talk.

He caught the curious glance the man was aiming at him. Sephiroth seemed to take it as permission to engage conversation.

“So, what did you mean when you said you’ve never been to Corel? Am I wrong in thinking there’s a story here?”

Trust him to systematically catch what he was not saying.

“Corel was destroyed in the explosion of their Mako reactor a few years from now. Then a billionaire decided to build a giant amusement park on its ruins.”

Sephiroth’s eyebrows rose.

“Much as I’m sure everyone loves a good amusement park, that sounds like something we should try to change.”

“ _Mako reactors_ sounds like something I want to change. Otherwise the Planet won’t need Jenova to die.”

Now Sephiroth’s eyebrows really took flight.

“I didn’t peg you as an eco-militant.”

Rain glared at the wariness in his voice. He tried to remember that Sephiroth had been raised on nothing but Shinra’s propaganda. Even when he had first joined AVALANCHE, openly caring about the Planet had been met with suspicion and accusations of eco-terrorism. There was no reason for the situation to be different now.

“It’s not about the hippie life, Sephiroth,” he said, exasperated. “You’ve seen the Planet heal Genesis with your own eyes. You know she’s alive, at least in her own way. What makes you think sucking every last drop of her blood is going to go over well for us?”

“That sounds all well and good, but very impractical. Modern society can’t function without Mako energy, Cloud.”

A humourless smile.

“Yet we managed.”

Sephiroth’s eyes swivelled on him. Faced with the bright curiosity in them, Rain found himself talking about the consequences of the Meteor Fall, humanity’s rushed struggle to revert to old energies and design new ones. Of course Sephiroth read between the lines. It was easy to see the moment he realized that to achieve this, Shinra must have collapsed; his eyes widened. Yet he didn’t try to question it, only pursuing what little Rain knew of coal mining and energy sources research. He was better informed on the Mako reactors’ dismantling process, as he had kept a close eye on Shinra’s last remains.

Before Rain knew it, they were halfway to Corel and he had spent more than an hour discussing technical and political agendas with Sephiroth. His enhanced body was the only reason his throat didn’t feel sore.

He was surprised at himself. His willingness to talk so much could only be explained by how eager he was to make Sephiroth understand where he was coming from. It was… troubling.

Sephiroth had settled back in his seat, seemingly digesting everything he had been told. Silence lasted them a few miles.

When Sephiroth broke it, the formality in his voice was startling after the easy conversation they had just had.

“May we talk about what you told me two days ago?”

Ah… Yeah, that would do it. Rain managed to limit his reaction to the tightening of his hand on the steering wheel.

“What about it?”

“Need we fear that Hojo will engage in similar experiments now that I am eschewing his control?”

He shifted restlessly. He couldn’t pretend that the thought hadn’t occurred to him… But what was he supposed to do about it?

“I don’t know… He’s been busy with these monsters he sent after you, plus he can’t have that much J cells available that he could work on both projects at once…” Maybe. Guesses, all of this. Guesses were all he had. His voice hardened. “Sephiroth, if I’m ever in a position where I can’t… Don’t let Hojo get his hands on Cloud.”

He should ask this of Zack and Vincent too. Cloud had to be out of harm’s way in Cosmo Canyon for now, but better safe than sorry.

Sephiroth was scrutinizing him intently.

“Why would Hojo take any particular interest in Strife? Why did he take an interest in you?”

Because he couldn’t fathom how a mere infantryman had gotten the drop on his perfect SOLDIER. But that wasn’t the answer Sephiroth was looking for.

“Do you remember what I told you of Experiment S?”

Sephiroth didn’t say a word. Of course he did.

“You were injected with both Mako and J cells while you were still an embryo. Angeal and Genesis, too… They were both put in contact with J cells before they were born. I don’t know much about biology, but even I can tell that it’s because an unborn child has no natural defences of its own. No way to fight that kind of intrusion…”

He drifted off, half-remembered flashes of green and glints of harsh light on scalpels stealing his breath for an instant.

“Cloud.”

He jerked, nearly sending the truck careening off the thankfully empty road.

“Sorry,” he said, trying not to pant too obviously. “Some rare persons are born with no natural defences against J cells. Persons like me, like Cloud. It’s why I – we – never made the SOLDIER cut.”

Sweat beaded on his brow. A short silence filled the cabin. He just about jumped out of his skin when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“I upset you. I’m sorry.”

Rain stared. Too many thoughts whirled around in his brain, too many emotions roused by these simple words. Sephiroth seemed to understand. He squeezed his shoulder and released it, turning to look out the window. Something that could have been a scream or a sob burned in Rain’s chest. To keep it silent, he bit his lip so hard he tasted blood.

He had never thought two sentences could be so powerful. They shone with so much meaning he was blinded.

 

* * *

 

The village Rain knew as Old Corel lay in the shadow of the mountain where its inhabitants used to mine coal before Shinra’s Mako-propelled bid for power. The incomplete skeleton of the new Mako reactor peeked above the mountain range, farther away than he had expected. He frowned. How had the town been destroyed from such a distance? The setup reminded him of Nibelheim an awful lot and he suppressed a shiver of ill omen. This reeked of a patented Shinra cover-up story.

But for now, the village was still standing… and besieged by an entire military camp.

“They can’t need that many troops to subdue such a small village,” Sephiroth observed as they approached a barricade on the road, disguises firmly in place – hats, worker clothes and sunglasses to hide the glow of their eyes.

A Deepground sergeant gestured for them to stop the truck. Rain obeyed without any fuss and rolled down his window.

“Hey, officer, what’s the problem here?” he said, thickening his natural countryside accent. “There a war or somethin’? We don’t want trouble.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” he barked without answering.

“In town? We’re just merchants looking for some business. Friend of ours told us to contact this man here, uh… Barret Wallace.”

He hesitated before dropping Barret’s name, afraid he was bringing trouble to his old friend. The sergeant hummed.

“Wallace, uh?”

He had his men search the back of the truck, but they only found boxes of odds and ends. Masamune and Rain’s swords were carefully hidden in an invisible compartment behind the driver seat.

The sergeant threw open the passenger side door and heaved himself inside, forcing Sephiroth to scoot over so he could sit beside him.

“Drive, then. I’ll show you the way.”

He intended to check their story with Barret. Rain swore in his head and tried to ignore Sephiroth’s shoulder where it brushed against his own, rigid with outrage.

They drove through the camp, four rows of tents and men milling around. It felt like walking into a trap and hearing the door slamming behind their backs. Finally they crossed a line of trees and entered the village proper. The sergeant directed them through unknown streets swimming with military presence and had them stop before a small house.

A man exited just as they climbed out. Despite the younger face and the two flesh arms, there was no mistaking that musculature or the thunderous frown that accompanied it.

“Somethin’ wrong, sergeant?” Barret Wallace asked as they joined him.

“These men say they’re here to see you, Wallace. That true?” It was barked in a strange mixture of accusation and half-assed politeness, like the officer was trying to be cordial but had neither the character nor any real urge to manage it.

Barret considered them with wariness. He seemed taken aback by the small but warm smile Rain addressed him before he could wrestle his expression back under control. He had not realized how pleased he would be to see another familiar face.

But it didn’t erase their problem. According to everything he could dig out of his memory about Barret’s past, as well as his friend and the sergeant’s attitudes, Barret was currently cooperating with Shinra. He was probably even one of the company’s biggest supporters in town.

He had no choice but to take a blind risk. He held out a hand.

“Barret Wallace? Yeah, we’ve been in contact with a guy named Dyne? He said to talk to you.”

Dyne was Barret’s old friend, Marlene’s biological father. Surprise flashed in Barret’s eyes. He grabbed Rain’s hand in a firm grip, although to someone well-trained to his moods, his continued suspicion was obvious.

“Yeah, I was expectin’ these guys,” he nonetheless said to the officer. “Thanks for bringin’ them.”

The man huffed.

“Don’t bring guests into town now. The situation is volatile enough as it is. We don’t need the extra work.”

“Sorry ‘bout the trouble. Won’t happen again.”

“Make sure it doesn’t.”

With that charming farewell, he walked off.

“You might a’ well come in,” Barret said, turning his back without a glance at them.

Sephiroth caught Rain’s eye, mutely questioning him. He communicated his doubts with a grimace before following Barret in.

He was unsurprised when the door slammed shut behind them. Barret’s face had grown tight and angry. A woman, pale and tired-looking, peeked in the hall with a worried frown.

“Myrna, sweetie, you let me settle this, ‘kay?”

After a moment of hesitation, she disappeared further in the house.

“I told Dyne I wanted nothin’ to do with these terrorists clowns of his,” Barret growled in barely-contained rage. “I gotta think of my wife, dammit! I don’t care if these Deepground bastards are the worst assholes on the face of the damned Planet! I’m not gonna defy Shinra!”

“Terrorists?” Rain repeated.

“AVALANCHE,” Sephiroth said with the tone of someone who had just realized something. “That’s why there are so many troops here.”

“What?” Rain stared at him, uncomprehending. AVALANCHE was Barret’s organization, and it wasn’t supposed to exist yet… Was it? “Oh.” He remembered now. Barret had re-used the name of another eco-terrorist group. The first AVALANCHE movement had been much more destructive and its activities had started just a few months ago. Cloud had even had a mission against them before his departure from Shinra.

“Yeah, that’s right! Damn AVALANCHE threatened the Mako reactor, and them troops are there to protect it. That reactor is Corel’s future! We ain’t gonna let it fly like that, and I don’t care what Dyne say! AVALANCHE, Deepground, them’s all the same to me. Bastards, all of them. But I gotta protect my own!”

Barret stopped suddenly.

“Hey wait. You ain’t with AVALANCHE?”

“We aren’t with Dyne either,” Rain confessed. “I just needed an excuse so you’d let us in. I wanted to ask for your help, but…”

But he had forgotten about Barret’s wife and her illness. Now it seemed obvious that Barret wouldn’t want to take any risk to help them. He had even refused assistance to Dyne. He couldn’t ask anything of him in these circumstances.

Yet without any contact in Corel, it would be very difficult to assess the situation and devise a workable plan.

“We won’t trouble you any longer,” Sephiroth said, seemingly sensing his change of mind. “But if you could tell us how to contact this Dyne, we would appreciate it.”

Both Barret and Rain blinked at him.

“Why do I gotta do that?” Barret asked in suspicion. “I don’t wanna help Dyne, but I don’t wanna betray him neither. Helping you guys’d mean one or the other.”

“Barret.”

The mysterious Myrna had reappeared and was considering them with a kind smile.

“I don’t think they mean any harm. Won’t you let them in? At least stay for dinner,” she said to Rain and Sephiroth. “Let us get to know you.”

They exchanged a glance while Barret grumbled a protest that was mostly for show.

“We would be delighted,” Rain answered for both of them. “Thank you.”

Myrna waved them in the cosy dining room, Barret bringing the rear. However, once there, her warm expression turned stern.

“Now, won’t you let us see your faces? It is a bit rude to keep these hats indoor.”

The reprimand caused Rain’s cheeks to burn. This woman somewhat reminded him of the Aerith of his past. He cleared his throat in embarrassment and shed the hat and the sunglasses. If his Mako eyes caused her to look taken aback, it was nothing to the viciousness of Barret’s curses when Sephiroth followed his example and his telltale hair cascaded down his back.

“SOLDIER!”

“Ex, actually,” Sephiroth said calmly.

“You don’t have anything to fear from us,” Rain was quick to reassure.

While Barret looked unconvinced, his wife merely nodded.

“We never had much to fear from SOLDIERs. They are a decent bunch, on the whole. It’s that Deepground sort that…” She sighed. “Well, I’m Myrna.”

They exchanged introductions, then, at her invitation, proceeded to share a simple but hearty meal. Conversation was a bit stilted on Rain’s part, as he struggled to find anything uncompromising to say. Sephiroth mostly followed his lead, but Myrna was pleasant company. Even Barret seemed to unthaw somewhat as it became clear that they weren’t a threat to his family.

Then Myrna attempted to pick up the heavy serving dish and tripped. Rain, having been searching for signs of her poor health all along, was there before Barret could even get out of his seat.

“Here, let me. I’ll do it.”

He helped her up and relieved her of the weight. She smiled at him in gratitude. Up close, he could see she had paled even more and was short of breath.

“Ah, thank you. I’m sorry, I’m very tired. I think I’ll retire for the evening. It was a pleasure to meet you, Rain, Sephiroth.”

They nodded back. Once she was gone and Rain had deposited the dish in the kitchen, Barret rose abruptly. He seemed to have made up his mind.

“Awright. I wanna believe you guys ain’t here to mess things up for anyone. But if you do, well… you’ll have me to answer to, you hear?”

Rain didn’t answer. Whatever he could say now wouldn’t appease him in the slightest. He wanted to help Barret, but stopping Deepground had to come first.

Barret gave them directions to a spot in the mountain where they could make contact with Dyne and his AVALANCHE allies. They thanked him, disguised themselves once more and went back to the truck.

“You intend for us to ally ourselves with AVALANCHE?” Rain asked once they were en route to the rendezvous point, the car’s headlights painting their way on the dark trail.

He was careful to keep his voice neutral. While he didn’t like the idea, it was probably their only option. Sephiroth shrugged.

“Do you have an objection? They share your convictions, do they not?”

He made a face.

“I don’t know about that. I don’t… remember much about them. I just heard stories… There is something fishy about their leading members. I don’t really know what.”

“Hmm. Then we’ll keep our eyes open.”

He nodded. It was all they could do.

 

* * *

 

AVALANCHE was understandably very interested in the jewel of the SOLDIER program falling in their lap. They were swiftly ushered in their temporary headquarters, a network of disaffected mines running deep in the mountain’s bowels, and met their leader in under an hour.

She was a young girl named Elfé, who Sephiroth had apparently fought once before. His respect for her was obvious, which was enough to tell Rain that despite being unenhanced, she was more than she appeared. Her second introduced himself as Shears.

Elfé appeared reserved and almost lethargic, and Shears was openly wary of them. Yet they seemed at first glance to be good people, who genuinely believed in their cause and the necessity for Shinra to fall. Deepground’s emergence had only cemented their conviction. Were Rain’s doubts unfounded?

“The Restrictors, uh?” Shears said. “If we bring them down, Deepground is history?”

“It’s going to be more complicated than that,” Rain intervened, having let Sephiroth lead the negotiations until that point. “But it’s a start.”

“A start to what? What’s your interest in this, anyway? Because getting rid of Deepground is good, but it’s Shinra we’re gunning for. If we do this and you end up stabbing us in the back to run back to your President…”

“Oh, no,” Sephiroth said with a faint smirk. “I have no interest in returning at President Shinra’s beck and call. Besides, these days I’m mostly following Rain’s judgment, and his goals when it comes to Shinra are remarkably similar to yours.”

Elfé and Shears turned to Rain, startled. They seemed to be reviewing their opinion of his importance in the pecking order. He shifted on his feet, embarrassed. Sephiroth was good on his word and made most of the decisions pertaining to their moves, but he obviously enjoyed surprising the people he talked to and putting Rain on the spot.

“So, we kill the Restrictor here in Corel,” Elfé summarised. “But he’s going to be well protected.”

“Rain and I can take care of the Restrictor himself. We mostly need a distraction so we won’t have to battle the rest of the army while doing so.”

“We’re guerrilla fighters,” Shears reminded them. “Why do you think we’re holed up here instead of fighting? We can’t hold our own against all the men Shinra brought here, especially all the Mako enhanced ones. Our Ravens are good, but…”

He trailed off and gritted his teeth.

“Ravens?” Rain repeated.

“Super soldiers troops created by Fuhito, our scientist,” Elfé said. “However, their humanity is…” She stopped. “Well. They are mostly under Fuhito’s control. They’ll help, but they won’t be enough.”

Fuhito. Rain carefully stored the name in his memory. There seemed to be some dissension here, and it may well be what he had been looking for.

“So we need something more,” Sephiroth mused aloud. “A good strategy could make the difference. How well do you know the mountains?”

“We’ve got locals who agreed to join. They…”

A chirp from his pocket distracted Rain from the conversation. He took out his phone to see Cloud’s daily checkup message. He was jokingly complaining about the spotty mobile coverage and how he would never manage to stay on top of his (non-existent, Rain knew from experience, unless you counted the newsletters) emails. His lips quirked as he answered in kind.

That’s when it hit him.

He grabbed Sephiroth’s arm, interrupting him mid-sentence.

“I know where we can find more troops,” he said, and Sephiroth was clearly taken aback by the elation in his eyes.

 

* * *

 

“OK. Tseng says he’s managed to hack the email address.”

Cloud was pecking at his phone under the starlight, not glancing up to inform them of this seemingly important fact. Sephiroth turned away lest he glared at the top of his head. It had been a while since he had been a simple cog in the time traveller’s scheming, and he had not missed the feeling.

“Does he intend to explain what we’re doing here anytime soon?” Shears asked, impatient.

Sephiroth shrugged.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“We shouldn’t stay here too long. It’s not safe,” their guide said.

Although a bit shorter, Dyne was nearly as burly as his friend Barret. He had claimed to know the mountains like the back of his hand and had agreed to lead them to a spot meeting Cloud’s requirements. Shears had accompanied them. The four of them were now perched on a near invisible ledge just above one part of the Shinra encampment; specifically, the one housing the SOLDIERs.

They had been parked away from the rest of the army like so much cattle. He could see figures evolving like silent ghosts amongst the dark tents, following the paths lit by a rare lamp and the glow of their own eyes. It was a far cry from the well-lit, boisterous Deepground settlements.

Although he made sure to keep his face blank, it angered and saddened Sephiroth in turn. He had not been close to the Second and Third Class SOLDIERs, but he had often worked with them. They were good men, and didn’t deserve this miserable treatment. What they endured during the day was probably even worse.

“You’re up, Sephiroth,” Cloud said, snapping him out of his musings.

He tore his attention from the sorry sight below.

“Oh?” he said, neutral.

“If you could pass them a message, what would you say to SOLDIERs?”

The abrupt demand stole the breath from his lungs. He stared in the faintly glowing blue eyes. They stared right back, burning; daring him to deny what they both knew had just been on his mind. Daring him to deny he cared.

“Here. Type it out.”

Cloud held out his phone. Sephiroth took it to see a blank email open.

For a while he didn’t move. At first he thought he had no words, nothing to say. But even as he was going to convince himself of it, they came, one after another, trickling to him as if he had been shaping them all along in a corner of his unconscious mind and they had only been waiting for a signal.

He closed his eyes and sighed.

It didn’t matter what Cloud’s game was this time. He owed them this.

So he wrote.

He wrote of his unplanned departure, of the regret he felt for everyone he left behind to deal with Shinra’s sinister plotting. Of how honoured he was to have fought with each and every one of them, and of his belief that they were the best left in Shinra’s rotten core. He urged them to stand tall against the malice and the humiliations and to never forget what SOLDIER really stood for. He swore to them that the day would soon come where they would once more be proud of what they did, even should that day bring Shinra’s downfall.

He handed the phone back when he was done.

Cloud looked at the screen for a long moment. When he finally pressed some buttons, Sephiroth could have sworn his eyes glistened in the dark. Without a word, Cloud joined them at the ledge to gaze down at the camp.

“What are we looking for?” Sephiroth asked.

Cloud took a deep breath.

“Subscribers to the Silver Elite newsletter.”

Before Sephiroth could turn to him in surprise, rings and chirps of all nature rang out in the night. The ground below suddenly lit with the glow of countless phone screens. The faint whisper of voices stopped. SOLDIERs froze where they stood, reading in reverent silence.

Sephiroth’s breath froze in his throat. Dyne swore.

“What’s that?”

“It’s an army,” Shears whispered fervently.

Cloud gave a breathless laughter.

“There are… way more than I expected. They’ll follow you, Sephiroth. Lead them and they’ll follow.”

Pride seized his chest, pride the likes of which he had never known he was capable of feeling. Yes, it was an army.

His army.

 

* * *

 

Rain’s idea turned out to be exactly the breakthrough they needed. Contact was made with the creators of Angeal, Genesis and Zack’s fan clubs. Some of them openly wept when their respective hero called them in person. All of them were ready and eager to help.

SOLDIERs weren’t the only subscribers. Regular troopers and even civilians received the emails. Those last were encouraged to stay strong and to cooperate with Deepground until such a time when a successful rebellion could be launched. The infantrymen were given the same instructions as the SOLDIERs: be alert. You might be called upon sooner than you think.

It was a gamble, broadcasting their message so widely. Any subscriber could be a spy or a turncoat. But the benefits far outweighed the risks.

So what if Deepground realized they were up to something? They didn’t know where, when and what. Meanwhile, Kunsel reported that morale in the non-Deepground ranks had never been higher. Fan clubs inscriptions exploded and Tseng had to rig a server to reroute the massive amount of emails before Shinra’s surveillance tripped all over them.

By the time the third Restrictor set foot in Wutai where Zack and Vincent were waiting for him, an army had been born all over the world.

They called themselves First Class.

 

* * *

 

Sitting by the sacred fire in Cosmo Canyon, Cloud sat staring at the numerous emails that had appeared on his phone over the course of the last two days. Only one was addressed to him specifically.

‘ _Thanks for the idea, little brother_ ,’ it read.

Cloud wasn’t ashamed to say he had cried like a baby when he had seen it. Never before had he realized that if he, a kid growing up in nowhere town with the support of a brother he looked up to, had felt the need to search for a role model in Sephiroth, Rain would have had it ten times worse.

Rain had thought of the Silver Elite because he had once been a member of it. And that man who had not so long ago refused to trust in anything Sephiroth said or did because his faith had been so utterly betrayed, that man was using that very same faith as a stepping stone to their future.

‘ _I love you_ ,’ he typed. ‘ _Stay safe._ ’

“Cloud?”

He glanced up and smiled as Tifa came to sit next to him. Nanaki, the strange talking feline Rain had recommended to them, circled back in that graceful stride of his to lay down on his other side. He had quickly become their friend and spent much of his time with them, helping alleviate the boredom of their stay. However, he was even closer to Aerith.

“Aerith is still with Bugenhagen,” Tifa said as if guessing his thoughts. “They say she’s making a lot of progress.”

“That’s great. She must be happy.”

“What have you got here?” Nanaki asked, nosing his arm.

“Just messaging my brother.”

He hesitated, but the warmth in his chest wouldn’t be restrained.

‘ _I’m First Class_ ,’ he wrote, before signing and sending the message.

“You look happy,” Tifa remarked.

In a strike of boldness, he took her hand and grinned.

“That’s because something awesome is happening out there.”


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this is late. Ugh, work. Ugh, *life*. Leave me alone and let me write, dammit. I’ll try to get the next chapter out on May 15th. In the meantime, please enjoy watching these people be badasses.

AVALANCHE’s Corel headquarters buzzed with the kind of nervous energy that could only come from a heady mix of anticipation and fear. Seeing people and Ravens alike bustling around made Rain even more jittery, though he clamped down on the feeling the best he could.

Sephiroth emerged from the room they had been given and joined him in the corridor. He had foregone any type of disguise and proudly wore his battle leathers. His hair trailed behind him like a pale banner.

“Ready?” he said at finding Rain waiting for him.

It was evidently a rhetorical question, as he was already moving away. Rain stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Why did you send my description in the last mass newsletter?”

Somehow, he didn’t think Tseng had made that decision on his own. Sephiroth didn’t seem bothered by his frown.

“We may be separated today, Cloud. Angeal, Genesis, Zack and I are well-known, but I needed everyone to know they could rally behind you too. I offered the same to Valentine, but his intent is to stick to the shadows.”

“He got the choice, but I didn’t?”

“Your desire to remain inconspicuous is much less practical than his.”

He frowned harder, feeling defensive.

“You know Shinra’ll have the info too by now. When did you intend to tell me they’ll want my blood about as much as they want yours?”

“Oh, not quite that much, I should think,” Sephiroth smirked. “But you and I both know this isn’t what you have a problem with, Cloud. You don’t like to lead. That’s fine, in most circumstances I don’t mind picking up the slack. But if something were to happen, you’ll need all the resources you can get. And face it. You are a natural leader.”

When Rain just crossed his arms and glared, his lips formed a more sincere smile.

“It’ll be an honour to work with you today, Cloud.”

The warmth in his voice took Rain aback about as much as the hand he held out. He found himself flustered.

“What’s with you…” he stammered, though he did answer the gesture. Sephiroth’s gloved grip was reassuringly firm in his.

“It’s time,” Elfé said as she approached them, Shears one step behind her.

They let go and Sephiroth nodded.

“We’re ready.”

The plan was for AVALANCHE to attack the reactor in as flashy a way as possible.

Hidden in the cliffs above the village, Sephiroth and Rain saw and heard an explosion go off in the mountains. Immediately, the camp down on the ground buzzed with activity. It didn’t take long for trucks loaded with reinforcements to leave.

Sephiroth wordlessly passed a pair of binoculars to Rain and pointed the departing troops. He looked, and found the unmistakably huge silhouette of Azul the Cerulean among the uniforms.

He grunted in surprise. He had expected that each Restrictor would keep a Tsviet by their side for additional protection, but he had assumed that Corel’s Restrictor wouldn’t move from the camp’s shelter. Either he or she was more battle-ready than he had thought, or they knew something was up.

“This is good,” Sephiroth said.

He blinked at him.

“It’s not what we had prepared for.”

“It’s better. It gives us an occasion to rally the troops at camp, cut the Restrictor’s escape route _and_ protect the town before confronting him. There is less risk of civilian casualties.”

He had a point, but still…

“What about AVALANCHE? Even with Elfé, they won’t be able to hold up against Azul on top of Deepground.”

“So, warn them,” he said without much care. “They knew the risks, Cloud,” he added in answer to his dark look.

“This is why I hate leading,” he muttered even as he took his radio.

“This one is on me.”

Like it changed in any way how many persons were going to die today. Still, if it came to a choice between AVALANCHE and Corel’s defenceless inhabitants… He called Shears.

A few minutes later, a second explosion shook the mountain. It was their signal: the reinforcements were halfway to the reactor. It was also a flawless way to have everyone look in the same direction at the same time.

Sephiroth straightened and climbed the highest rock overlooking the camp. Masamune sang an eager note as he drew it and pointed it at the sky. Its steel caught the sun like a miniature star.

“First Class,” he screamed. “To me!”

 

* * *

 

“When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end, the goddess descends from the sky,” Genesis declaimed, arms flung out and head tipped back.

The surveillance booth of Shinra’s Junon HQ was empty around them, apart from the bodies of a few Deepground soldiers and two technicians staring awestruck at the two ex-SOLDIERs gracing them with their presence. Angeal smiled at his friend, adrenaline already running through his veins.

“Shall we bring about the war of the beasts?”

“Let’s,” Genesis replied, an eager spark in his eyes as he lowered his arms.

Angeal turned to the microphone and nodded to the technicians. They were quick to engage the building-wide announcement system.

“Attention, First Class! This is SOLDIER Angeal Hewley talking. Today is the day we retake our honour!”

 

* * *

 

“First Class! Let’s kick their asses!” Zack yelled in the megaphone a tiny Wutaian girl named Yuffie had procured for him.

He had barely finished talking before the Wutaian rebels rushed past him towards the battle starting below. A man followed them, spear eagerly cutting down the first enemies coming his way.

“#%&@ yeah!” Cid Highwind screamed.

“Man, talk about enthusiasm, huh?” Zack told the ex-Turk next to him even as he drew his sword. “Hope we don’t lose our pilot today, that would suck!”

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Vincent said in what passed for a long-suffering tone for him.

His red cape flew down the dusty hill. Gunshots unerringly found their marks. Grinning, Zack hacked his way to the closest group of SOLDIERs. They saluted him with bright eyes.

“With me, guys!”

 

* * *

 

If Shinra didn’t want Rain’s death half as much as they wanted Sephiroth’s, he was happy not to be in his shoes.

Ever since he had stepped foot on the battlefield, Deepground’s own brand of SOLDIERs had been launching themselves at him at a frightening pace. He had been separated from Sephiroth a long time ago. The only thing that kept him from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers was providential help appearing as often as new enemies. Regular SOLDIERs and troopers kept stepping in for him, running interference and protecting his flanks.

He thought Sephiroth would be smug about being right. Then again, Rain would be quick to point out that he wouldn’t have needed help if he wasn’t being systematically recognized on sight. (And he stopped there, because since when was he running imaginary conversations with Sephiroth in his head?)

Still, he could grudgingly recognize the merits of the idea. It was impossible to know which SOLDIERs and infantrymen were on their side unless they took a clear stand. The battle would have been complete chaos without Sephiroth and him to serve as figureheads. They were the two eyes of the storm, concentrating much of the violence of the conflict around them. The pressure was staggering, but Rain was good enough to withstand it.

That didn’t prevent him from being very grateful when the pace finally slowed down enough for him to get his bearings. A thin layer of sweat stuck to his skin, sprinkled with dust and blood. He had a few scratches, nothing major.

The battle seemed on its last legs. From what he could see, they had mostly managed to keep it away from Corel’s boundaries. Curtains and shutters moved as frightened villagers peeked from behind them. He couldn’t spot Barret’s house from where he stood, but he had to trust it was okay.

The men milling around turned to him when it became evident that the last pockets of enemy resistance were being overrun.

“Sir!” one of them said, saluting.

It was a Second Class SOLDIER, judging by the uniform. Having one of them defer to him was surreal. Hit by an unwelcome feeling of inadequacy, he searched for Sephiroth. He couldn’t see him anywhere. He turned to his radio.

“Sephiroth, this is Rain. Come in.”

A few seconds of static. Before he could believe the worst, Sephiroth’s voice rang out. By the rhythm of his breath, he was still in the middle of a fight.

“This is Sephiroth. Are you done with the camp?”

Rain frowned.

“Yes. Where are you?”

“On the mountain trail to the reactor. I ducked out as soon as the battle seemed ours. Finish there and join me.”

He signed off without any more fanfare. Rain glared at the radio. So he _had_ been worried about their allies’ chances of survival. This new evidence that Sephiroth cared should have been reassuring, but he was too annoyed to deal with it right now.

_Buckle up, Cloud._

“Alright!” he called to anyone who would hear. “You know your usual hierarchy better than I do. We need surveillance for the prisoners, healing for the wounded and a security perimeter around the town to protect the civilians. And then anyone who can be spared here is coming with me.”

It was fifteen long minutes before the men rearranged themselves according to his orders. The villagers started to come out of their houses when the wounded were moved in Corel, behind the forming defensive perimeter. Rain was nicely surprised to see most of them bringing bandages, food and water. It seemed Deepground was hated wherever it went.

“Hey you!”

He was less surprised to see a furious Barret striding up to him. Two SOLDIERs stopped him before he could reach Rain.

“What the hell!” he yelled. “I help you and this is the thanks I get? What’re you filthy savages doin’ to the reactor?!”

Rain reached out and intercepted a medic.

“Get that man a Restore Materia and teach him how to use it.”

The medic nodded. To an astonished Barret, Rain said:

“Cure spells will only relieve Myrna’s symptoms and make sure the sickness doesn’t progress any more. She’ll still need proper treatment, but believe me, you weren’t going to get that from Shinra.”

“You…”

“Help treat our wounded and you can keep the Materia. It was good seeing you, Barret.”

He turned away, leaving Barret to stare at his back in bafflement. This was taking too long. He knew Sephiroth was a capable fighter, literally the best in existence, but the longer he waited, the more worry gnawed at his insides.

He called for whoever would follow him to assemble now. They came swiftly, a force of twelve SOLDIERs and a handful of supporting troopers. He led them towards the reactor at a brisk pace, taking the path Dyne had showed him. It was too narrow for vehicles, but a considerable shortcut.

The first part of the trek was spent in silence. However, as they were cutting through the abandoned coal mines, one of the troopers spoke up.

“Uh… Sir?”

Rain glanced at him, causing him to shift nervously.

“Did you see something?”

The explosions seemed to have prompted the monsters that lived in the mines to hide in the deeper levels, but it paid to be careful.

“Uh, no sir. I was just wondering… There’s this guy I used to work with. You look a lot like him? Corporal Cloud Strife. He, uh, disappeared at about the same time as First Class Sephiroth and Fair.”

His lips twitched in the ghost of a smile. Cloud would be pleased to know that some of his colleagues worried for him.

“My brother. He’s with us. He’s on… another mission right now.”

The sergeant shared a relieved look with the man walking next to him. Emboldened, he smiled at Rain.

“I didn’t know Strife had a SOLDIER brother. He never said.”

Rain felt a pang of panic. He forced himself to keep walking even as he turned away. It’s only when the men started fidgeting that he realized how attentive they were to his moods. He was an unknown quantity to them. They had begun to relax when he had seemed open to conversation, but his clamming up made them nervous. Too bad the only thing he could say wouldn’t help; but he had to go forward with Sephiroth’s plan, and they would hear about it sooner or later.

“I’m not SOLDIER. I’m a Deepground renegade.”

This effectively doused any further attempt at creating camaraderie. At least they were disciplined enough not to talk behind his back. The rest of the mines passed in an icy silence.

They emerged to open air just above the part of the mountain road where the Shinra troops had parked their trucks. They drew their weapons and picked up the pace. Battle sounds echoed between the cliffs, but there were far less of them than there should have been. Rain’s heart gave a twinge in his chest.

They rounded a bend in the road and stopped short, gasping.

The half-built reactor towered over a plateau littered with corpses. Most of them wore SOLDIER or trooper uniforms, but there were also Ravens and even Deepground infantry. Every single one of them bore bullet wounds.

It hadn’t been a fight. It had been a massacre.

And in the epicentre of the chaos, standing on the reactor’s steps, Azul the Cerulean laughed madly as Elfé fought him with despair-fuelled moves.

“Strife!”

Shears’ voice snapped him out of his shock. The rebel, a makeshift bandage on his thigh already soaked with blood, was attempting to lead what remained of AVALANCHE in a retreat, but their way was barred by Deepground troops. Even though they were visibly afraid of being caught in another one of Azul’s indiscriminate slaughters, Deepground fought on. That was how strong their compulsion to obey the Restrictor stood.

“Cover AVALANCHE!” Rain ordered his men.

He fought his way to Shears and bowled over the man’s enemies.

“Sephiroth?”

“Followed the Restrictor inside,” Shears said with a nod to the reactor. “Listen, Elfé won’t hold out much longer!”

Without warning, one of the reactor towers collapsed.

This was when Rain understood that he had underestimated the Restrictors. Sephiroth was genuinely fighting in there.

Meanwhile, Elfé was indeed in a bad position. He had thought her strong, but although he could see no wound on her, the more she battled, the more she seemed to weaken. It looked like her body was failing her.

Rain gritted his teeth and launched himself forward.

“Azul!”

The Tsviet countered his sword strike with the broad side of his cannon. He laughed as Rain bounded back to a safe distance.

“Another lamb to the slaughter! Ah, I remember you. You are that non-SOLDIER that fought Nero with Sephiroth. You wouldn’t happen to know how he escaped Nero’s darkness, would you? I was really surprised to see he had.”

“Fall back,” Rain said to Elfé.

No misplaced pride in her. She simply nodded and ran to help her men fight their way back to the safety of the mountains.

“Why kill all these men?” he asked Azul.

“Why not? All Shinra troops were potential spies and turncoats. That was thanks to you, wasn’t it? The Restrictor gave me permission to deal with the situation here as I saw fit.”

Rain’s gloves creaked as he clenched his fists on his swords’ hilts.

“And the Deepground men?”

“Pah! Why should I care about the weaklings who couldn’t avoid such a simple attack?”

It was too much. He threw himself at Azul, but stumbled as the Tsviet punched the earth, unleashing a veritable shockwave. By the time he regained his feet under him, Azul’s machine gun was pointed at him and he had no choice but to run away from the spray of bullets. He charged his only Materia and unleashed an Ice spell. Azul grunted and recoiled.

Rain seized the opportunity and rushed through the distance separating them. Azul tried to use the shockwave again, but he was ready and jumped over it. He landed in a flying attack and followed with a rapid-fire volley that had the Tsviet sway back. Azul’s skin was ridiculously thick and his pain threshold much too high. But his strong point was distance attacks, and though he tried to throw his opponent away by swinging his canon and his thick arms around, Rain was nimble enough to avoid the strikes and slip back under his defences. He was slow on his feet, too, which was a definite advantage to Rain.

He was just about to end the fight when a nearby part of the reactor exploded outwards. Rain and Azul were both sent hurtling away.

From the wreckage emerged a cloaked figure. Azul immediately struggled to his feet.

“Sir!”

The Restrictor held an ornate spear. He raised his free hand in Azul’s direction.

“Azul the Cerulean. You will—”

The dust cloud behind him parted as if cleaved in two by a hairbreadth-thin gale. Masamune pierced his chest.

Sephiroth had appeared behind him between one blink and the next. He was unusually dishevelled and blood shone wetly on his biceps where his coat sported a long rip, but it was his only visible wound.

The Restrictor’s spear clanged to the ground. He tried to reach for the blade in his chest, but collapsed before he could, dead.

The difference was immediate. After a second of incredulity, the Deepground troops turned and ran. The men Rain had brought and the AVALANCHE survivors gave a tired cheer.

Rain didn’t share their relief. Alarmed, he turned to Azul just as the Tsviet began a deep and booming laugh. The shock in his eyes was dying, already replaced with a greedy spark that bordered on madness.

“Free at last!” he screamed. “Now… let me show you my true strength!!”

He let his weapon fall. His form started to stretch in grotesque ways, limbs contorting with sickening cracks. Sephiroth started to raise Masamune again, but Rain stopped him.

“Nice timing,” he scoffed when the SOLDIER looked at him in askance.

“Cloud…” Sephiroth said with a long-suffering expression.

Rain rolled his eyes.

“I’ll take care of it.”

He got a raised eyebrow for his trouble.

“You wanted the men to follow me as they would follow you?” Rain said with sharp irritation. “I’ve got a lot to prove for that. Let me take care of this, Sephiroth.”

Sephiroth ducked his head in acceptance, although it didn’t prevent Rain from spotting the smirk on his lips. Then, to the confusion of their onlookers, he openly turned his back to the enemy and strode away.

Rain readied his stance and raised his swords. Azul’s transformation was ending. In place of the giant of a man now stood a Behemoth-like creature: four-legged, with a long and thick tail, curved horns and armoured skin. _This_ form would be a much better fit for melee attacks.

He had barely thought so that it rushed at him, attempting to skewer him with wickedly sharp horns that he only just escaped. Damn, it was quicker too. The tail smashed into him just he was rolling to his feet, sending him crashing to the ground some twenty feet away. One of his swords flew out of his hand. Of course, it was the one with his Ice Materia in the hilt.

He had expected Azul to be running to him, but when he struggled upright, the creature was still in the same place… preparing what appeared to be energy crystals. The projectiles flew at him and he parried them the best he could, gaining a few scratches for his trouble.

Then came another charge. Rain waited until the last moment to jump above him. Too heavy to stop, Azul slammed through the reactor wall as Rain swiped his blade along his spinal cord. As he had feared, the hide was so thick a normal strike barely left a mark.

This fight was not going well. He had to regain some kind of advantage. He spotted scaffolding against another side of the reactor. He bounded up to it while the Behemoth was shaking its head to get rid of the debris its horns had gotten stuck through. It didn’t take long before he heard the beast following behind him. The wooden frame shook and groaned under its weight as it heaved himself up. Rain turned and battled it even as they jumped ever higher.

Soon they reached the top of the unfinished walls, uneven and scattered with tools. The field hindered Azul’s devastating charges and Rain soon had him recoiling under his strikes. Yet he was unable to score a single wound on his enemy and if he kept this way, his sword would dull. He needed to get that Materia back.

Just as he was making his decision and angling his body to rush back down the scaffolding, Azul recovered long enough to swing that damn tail. Not about to be bested by the same trick twice, Rain crouched and angled the flat of his sword so the attack would glance off it. It still reverberated in his wrist with great power. Just then the ground dropped under their feet as a great chunk of the wall detached and took them with it on its fall. His grip failed completely and he lost his last weapon.

From very far below, he heard Sephiroth call his name.

His birth name again, that bastard, he took the time to think. Wasn’t he at least trying to use his official name when there were strangers around?

The long drop didn’t worry him. The way Azul was already reaching for him with teeth and claws, ready to tear him apart and crush him under his weight when they landed… that was more of a problem.

He wouldn’t survive six hundred pounds slamming into him from that height.

A burst of adrenaline flooded his veins. Hyper-awareness coated every single one of his nerves with fire and the world became brilliantly clear.

He needed weapons. Now.

The sword spiralling to the ground not far from him lit with the same blue corona haloing his body. Another tug came from further away. He focused on both of them and heaved. The hilts slapped in his palms and the energy thrumming under his skin burst out. He turned in midair, _slid_ through space and was before his enemy. Omnislash slammed into the beast, an onslaught of attacks too swift for the naked eye to see.

The last, vertical strike had Azul meet the ground with enough force to shake it. Both swords were embedded up to the hilts in the unmoving corpse.

Rain landed neatly nearby. The last remains of his Limit Break flickered out on his skin. He caught his breath and heaved his weapons out with a grunt.

When he turned, Sephiroth was approaching him with ground-eating strides.

“I am starting to get the feeling pushing you into an airborne battle is a bad idea.”

The words were out before he could censor them.

“I do have a lot of practice with winged enemies.”

Instead of being offended, Sephiroth smiled.

“I suppose so.”

Rain frowned at him, then down at his weapons. The blades had answered to him magnificently. He hadn’t felt this much resonance since his beloved Fusion Swords.

“Where did you say you got these?”

“I didn’t say,” Sephiroth replied flippantly.

With that he turned away, heading back to the ring of onlookers that had foregone their retreat to huddle at the base of the cliffs and watch the fight. Rain glared at his back. He never _did_ say, did he? He had just let him assume they had been found in some second-rate weapons shop in nowhere town.

Why hadn’t he asked earlier? He had been uncomfortable with the idea of owing something of monetary value to Sephiroth. But now that he knew the swords had been a much more precious gift than he had first assumed, what was he supposed to think? Didn’t it make things worse?

He tore the hem of his shirt off and cleaned them both thoroughly. He examined them with a keener eye than before. He had known they were of good craftsmanship, but now that he was looking for it, he could see the signs of a long history in the subtle details of the hilts and blades. Swords like these had to have names. Would Sephiroth know them? No, he would have said. If anything, Masamune was proof that he understood a weapon’s importance.

These blades were his now. He wouldn’t forsake them any more than he would have chosen to lose the Fusion Swords. Yet their origin mattered. There was some powerful symbolism in the fact that they had come from Sephiroth of all people.

He forced a long breath out.

Remus and Romulus. That would be their names.

Sheathing the newly christened swords, he joined the conversation taking place between Sephiroth, Elfé and a few of the SOLDIERs.

“… reinforcements?” one SOLDIER was saying.

“We’ll soon know if Shinra can afford it, but it seems unlikely,” Sephiroth answered.

His lack of concern made the SOLDIERs shift in confusion. In an example of splendid timing, Sephiroth and Rain’s phones chirped in their pockets. They dug them out in unison. Sephiroth smirked at reading Zack’s exclamation marks-filled message. Rain acquired the sudden, unsettling certainty that his smugness also masked relief.

“Wutai is ours.”

The SOLDIERs gaped and a few infantrymen hedged closer to listen, eager.

“O-ours?”

Sephiroth’s phone rang. He accepted the call.

“Genesis?”

With their enhanced hearing, Rain and the SOLDIERs could hear both sides of the conversation.

“So you’re not dead.”

“And neither are you, it seems.”

A snort, then Angeal’s voice replaced Genesis’. “Junon’s Restrictor is no longer a problem, Sephiroth.”

“Then that makes three of them. Congratulations, everyone. First Class now holds three continents.”

 

* * *

 

Despite everyone’s exhaustion, the atmosphere in the camp that evening was merry bordering on giddy. After months of Deepground’s tyranny, most of the troops weren’t even bothering to think of their betrayal of Shinra or the uncertainty of their future. For that night at least, they wanted to savour their recovered freedom.

Fires burned high, laughter rang between the tents. Some of Corel’s inhabitants willingly shared alcohol and good food and even joined the celebrations. AVALANCHE members made appearances, though at first they hedged nervously around the SOLDIERs and troopers, unsure of their welcome. But for tonight, only their allegiance under the First Class flag, however temporary it might turn out to be, seemed to matter.

Sephiroth spent the first two hours surrounded by a gaggle of admirers. It’s probably for this reason that Elfé and Shears deemed more prudent to find Rain; although the story of his “origin” and his prowess in battle had travelled through camp at the speed of light and most now regarded him with respect, they were still wary and kept their distance. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the two AVALANCHE leaders approaching him. They exchanged stilted thanks.

“What are you going to do, now?” Elfé asked. “Will you still pursue Deepground?”

“All remaining troops will be recalled to Midgar to defend their stronghold there… Yes. One way or another, we’ll go after them.”

“I see. And afterwards?”

Rain’s lips tilted minutely.

“You mean, Shinra as a whole? The Mako reactors? I don’t know. I know what I want to see happen… Maybe we’ll be in a position to really change things. Maybe not. There is no telling how things will go.”

Elfé exchanged glances with Shears.

“AVALANCHE has to think of the Planet before anything else. That is our goal. I will talk to Fuhito… decide if we want to join you in battle once more.”

If AVALANCHE followed them and Sephiroth and the others decided to rebuild Shinra instead of toppling it once and for all, it would place the militants in an awkward situation. That much he could understand. Rain narrowed his eyes.

“Fuhito… I have yet to meet him. Is he here tonight?”

“No. He prefers his labs to this kind of gathering.”

A hint of steel had slipped into Elfé’s voice. The scientist was an integral part of AVALANCHE’s operations, as he gathered it, and the fragile agreement between them was not enough to convince her Rain could be fully trusted. He backed off.

They separated shortly after and he went back to his crossing of the camp. However, he was soon interrupted once more.

“Rain! Yo, hey, man!”

Barret waved at him enthusiastically and he veered of course to accept an energetic handshake. Although his friend must have cleaned up, there was still some blood under his fingernails from the day he had spent doggedly assisting medics. His arm was looped around Myrna’s waist. She appeared a little less pale than the last time they had met and she was smiling, cheeks lit with a rosy tint by the fires. She insisted in thanking him profusely and Rain scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

He left them some ten minutes later, declining to have a drink with them.

He finally made it to the part of the camp where they had corralled their prisoners. The partying made him nervous and he couldn’t help wanting to make sure that there would be no rebelling from their left-over enemies. But here, away from the celebrations, everything was calm. Under the watchful eyes of a handful of SOLDIERs, a few dozen men slept or hunched over in silence. Most of them were troopers who hadn’t cared whether Shinra or Deepground gave the orders. The vast majority of Deepground soldiers had fought to the death. Those who had survived the battle looked lost, so unused were they to not having a Restrictor’s will smothering their own. They wouldn’t revolt tonight.

Still, he stayed.

Sephiroth found him there some indeterminate time later, pensive gaze glossing over the prisoners without really seeing them.

“One would think you would look happier. Doesn’t our success today please you?”

Rain turned to him. He propped his hip against a nearby barrel of water.

“Of course it does. I’m just…”

He trailed off, not really knowing how he had intended to finish that sentence. He sighed.

“There is still so much to do. What’s left of Deepground will hole up in Midgar. Taking the city back will be a huge problem, especially with their underground fortress. There is one Restrictor left and the strongest Tsviet yet… Well, two of them, since Nero managed to escape Angeal and Genesis.”

And they hadn’t heard from Hojo in a while, which was worrying. Add his undefined suspicions about Fuhito to the lot… And he was certain he was forgetting some other concerns that should have been just as pressing. How could he not? There were so many things to keep track of and he was only one man.

Sephiroth took a step forward, cutting through his depressing musings. Another step placed them firmly in each other’s personal bubbles. Rain straightened, flustered, but the move just brought them closer. This far from the fires, the glow from Sephiroth’s eyes was visible, but the half-light had a strange softening effect on it.

“I know for a fact you weren’t born such a pessimist, Cloud. Please don’t worry so much. You aren’t alone.”

He wasn’t referring to the army behind them.

“Together, we can accomplish anything. I truly believe that.”

Rain felt heat suffuse his face. Sephiroth smiled. He put an ungloved hand on his forearm and squeezed gently.

Never before had their bare skins touched. With the shoddy state his mental shields were in, he tensed instinctively, waiting for the intrusive surge of J cells in his mind.

Nothing came. He was left with only an impression of lingering warmth as Sephiroth moved away.

He stared at the backlit silhouette as it returned to the camp, wondering what had just happened.


	18. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know when I’ll post next. The last of my buffer is kind of a mess of disjointed scenes I need to work on before it can form a coherent chapter 18. But on the bright side, I estimate we’re now, at most, 3 chapters and an epilogue away from the end! Plus this one is pretty long, so enjoy. :)

Even for a town renowned world-wide as a vacation spot, Costa del Sol had rarely seen so much activity.

Everywhere Cloud’s eyes went, men milled around in one form or another of the Shinra military uniforms. SOLDIERs were still easily recognizable, but the infantrymen had ditched or substituted parts of their regulation outfits as it pleased them. The only common point was the total absence of the Shinra logo, systematically replaced with the number 1 painted over the SOLDIER symbol. It had even been hastily drawn over the sides of the military trucks lining the streets.

An infectious optimism pervaded the atmosphere. Even the rare people doing nothing more involved than basking in the sun held themselves straight and exuded a sense of purpose. Cloud was nearly vibrating from how badly he wanted to join everyone and make himself useful.

“Oh, come on, move!” Tifa huffed suddenly.

She leaned over Cloud and used the car horn before he could stop her. It didn’t succeed in making the three troopers blocking their way hurry in their crossing of the street, although one of them turned to give them a wave of acknowledgment. He stopped mid-gesture. He wasn’t wearing his helmet and Cloud recognized him immediately.

“Ah!”

He lowered his window as Sergeant Bolt hurried to the driver’s side.

“Strife! Well, I’ll be. It’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you too, sir,” he said, grinning.

Bolt glanced inside the car. He found Tifa’s disgruntled pout in the passenger seat and Aerith’s shy smile in the back. His lips twitched, but thankfully, he didn’t make any of the tawdry comments Cloud was sure had jumped to his mind. There weren’t many women in the military. Shinra was sexist like that.

“Your brother said you were fine, but I’m glad I got to confirm that with my own two eyes. The boys will be happy to have you back.”

“You talked to Rain?” he perked up. “We’re looking for him.”

“He should be near the docks with Sephiroth, organizing the boats and everything for the crossing to the east continent. That’s some family you’ve got, Strife. I saw that guy fight, you know. He was…”

The sergeant trailed off, apparently at a loss for words. Cloud’s grin widened.

“Yeah. He’s really something.”

The pride in his voice was unmistakable.

“Well, I’ll let you and your two lady friends go. Look our squad up later, you’ve probably got tons of stuff to share. Oh, and here.”

He slipped something through the window. A cloth patch with the new First Class logo landed on Cloud’s lap. His eyes lit with pleasure.

“Thanks!”

Bolt waved him off with a smile. Cloud stepped on the gas pedal even as he carefully stored the patch in his pocket. He’d have to take a moment later to stitch it up on his shoulder.

“A friend of yours?” Aerith asked.

“My commanding officer. He’s an alright guy.”

“You’ve been grinning ever since we entered the town,” Tifa said. “Even all the way here from Cosmo Canyon, it was like you were trying to jump out of your skin. You’re starting to creep me out.”

A rustle sounded from the back. Nanaki’s head peeked from under the tarp they had draped over him before entering Costa del Sol, just in case.

The lion-like creature had insisted to join them when they had departed. Cloud had thought Bugenhagen, his grandfather figure, would protest, but he had actually encouraged him to step out and see the world. He was as safe as he could be with three friends, even if Tifa and Aerith didn’t have much practical experience with travelling either.

“Why would you want Cloud to be unhappy?”

“I don’t! I’m just saying…”

She stopped and squirmed in her seat. Her face did that thing where she was trying to not let anyone see through her tough girl mask. Her eyes wandered over the military men the car kept crossing paths with. Always so empathic, Aerith leaned from the back to touch her shoulder.

“I’m a little scared too,” she confessed. “In Midgar, I mostly did my best to avoid the soldiers. But these people are here to help, right?”

Feeling guilty for not having thought of the girls in his excitement, Cloud took Tifa’s hand and smiled at Aerith.

“Yeah. You don’t have to worry. All these men follow Sephiroth and Rain. You are perfectly safe here.”

Tifa humphed and turned her head away. But she left her hand in Cloud’s, and he could see her cheeks were just a little red.

The docks were even worse than the rest of town. It was a veritable beehive, people running everywhere and vehicles loaded with supplies constructing a complex choreography near the boats. In the middle of it all stood Sephiroth, receiving reports and giving orders like he had been born for it. Rain could be spotted from afar. He had perched himself out of the way on a tall stack of crates and bundles and stared in bewilderment at everything going on below.

Cloud parked the car as close as he dared and bounded out.

“Rain!”

His brother perked up at the sound of his voice. Even Sephiroth stopped and turned. Cloud gestured broadly. Rain jumped down and made a beeline for him. The crowds parted for him as naturally as they did for Sephiroth twenty steps behind; not that he seemed to notice.

“Hey.”

The brothers clasped forearms in a warm greeting. Rain nodded at Tifa and smiled at Aerith as they too disembarked from the car.

“Guess what?” Cloud said, grinning.

Aerith held the door so that Nanaki could shimmy out behind her. He did so with his ears flattened nervously on his head, glancing everywhere at the strange town and the strange people. Rain’s utter astonishment made the surprise worthwhile.

“Red?” he gasped.

Nanaki turned to him and blinked.

“Hello,” he said cautiously. “My name is Nanaki.”

Sephiroth, who had just come up to Rain’s shoulder, made a sound of surprise at hearing him talk. But Rain’s expression was already slicking back to something more natural.

“Ah. Of course. It’s good to meet you, Nanaki.”

Despite his best efforts to look unaffected, he sounded a bit strained. Cloud touched his arm, worried he had made a mistake after all. He had assumed Rain would be happy to see an old friend, but maybe it was too difficult for him to have Nanaki not remember him. Rain just gave him a quirk of his lips. He didn’t seem sad, at last, so maybe it was okay.

Sephiroth pointedly cleared his throat.

“Ah,” Cloud jumped. “Uh, Nanaki, these are Sephiroth and my brother Rain.”

“How do you do?” Nanaki said, always so polite. “I’ve heard much about the two of you from Cloud, Aerith and Tifa.”

“More Cloud and Aerith than Tifa, hopefully,” Rain commented dryly, earning himself a huff from Tifa.

The men around had stopped what they were doing in their shock at Nanaki’s appearance and voice. But since Rain behaved like a talking lion was an everyday occurrence and Sephiroth, as in so many things, seemed determined to take his cues from him, they progressively went back to work. Nanaki relaxed a bit at no longer being the centre of attention.

“I apologize if my words are rude,” Sephiroth said, “but what manner of creature are you?”

Nanaki was unperturbed as ever when questioned on the subject.

“I am what you see.”

Sephiroth sent a questioning glance at Rain, who looked amused. He shrugged.

“Nanaki’s species is nearly extinct.”

“Ah.”

“You’ve met another like me before?” Nanaki asked eagerly.

“Well… in a manner of speaking. No one you would be able to meet now. Sorry.”

“Oh. No, that is alright.”

“Nanaki will be accompanying us,” Aerith said. “If that’s okay?”

“Sure. And how was your training, Aerith?”

“It was fantastic! I’m really glad I went. Well, right now I can only heal small cuts… but I know I’ll keep getting better with training. So please let me patch you up if something happens, alright?”

“Grandfather said he had nothing left to teach her,” Nanaki added. “Since he is not a Cetra himself. Everything else, she’s sure to learn on her own.”

“One thing, Nanaki,” Sephiroth cut in. “I have no reason to veto your presence if Rain agreed.” Rain blinked like it hadn’t even crossed his mind to check with him before doing so. “But please don’t go anywhere alone. The men wouldn’t react well to seeing an unknown feline roam around unaccompanied.”

“I see. Thank you.”

“You’re preparing to lead the troops to Junon to junction with Angeal and Genesis, right?” Cloud asked brightly. “Anything I can do to help?”

Sephiroth looked contemplative.

“Maybe. I have been using Cloud as my errand boy to pass messages across town.” Here Rain rolled his eyes. “I could use another easily recognizable face.”

“Hold that thought,” Rain said all of a sudden.

Cloud at first wondered what he could possibly find objectionable in Sephiroth’s plan. Then he realized his brother had tilted his head and was listening to something. Under the din of the docks, a low droning sound could be heard. It kept getting louder and louder.

Sephiroth tensed in alarm.

“Not Hojo?” he said, looking like he was waiting for the first symptoms of the proximity of Hojospawn.

But Rain’s tiny smile grew as whatever it was came closer.

“No. Cid.”

And with these cryptic words, he turned just in time to greet the massive airship flying over the last houses. It came to a roaring stop above them. Cloud gaped. It was at last seventy feet long, all sleek steel and chrome glinting in the sun. He had never seen anything like it. Every single eye on the docks stared.

“I give you the Highwind,” Rain shouted above the engines. “Shinra’s would-have-been flagship.”

“It can’t possibly land here,” Sephiroth said, sounding stunned.

“Oh, no. It needs a good ten acres for that.”

Far above, a rope was slung over the open deck’s railing. One after another, three forms slid down it and dropped the last ten feet.

“Zack!” Aerith yelled happily.

She ran to her boyfriend who picked her up and whirled her around, laughing as she shrieked in surprise. Vincent emerged from the shadow as the ship turned with grace and headed for the fields outside of town. A scruffy blond man about Rain’s age followed him, aviator goggles perched on his head, looking disgruntled and wary.

Rain approached them. He exchanged nods with his ex-Turk friend, then turned to the newcomer. Cloud recognized the look in his eyes. That one was as familiar to him as Nanaki.

“Cid Highwind.”

The man grunted.

“And who the fuck are you?”

“You can call me Rain. And this is Sephiroth.” Sephiroth nodded in acknowledgment. “Thank you for agreeing to lend us aerial support.”

“Yeah well, don’t go getting any ideas, you hear? The Highwind is mine. Don’t want any greedy assholes thinking they can swindle me out of my property, be it Shinra or you ragtag rebels.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s no problem.”

He glanced at Sephiroth as he said it, as if daring him to make a remark like he had for Nanaki. Sephiroth quirked an amused eyebrow.

“I suppose there’s no stopping you from doing what you will. I can’t complain when you bring me such nice toys.”

“The Highwind is no &%@$ toy!” Cid spluttered, outraged.

Sephiroth turned away from Rain’s glare, leaving him to pacify the pilot while he went to confer with Zack and Vincent. Smiling from the banter, Cloud joined them. He earned himself a greeting pat on the shoulder as he came up to Zack’s side.

“The troops are already on the move,” his friend was saying. “We’ll be returning to them shortly, we just wanted to liaise with you guys for a little while. That ship is incredible, let me tell you!”

“It must be if it got you here so quickly. That’s excellent. We’ll be able to use it for emergency support and reconnaissance.”

“Try not to antagonize Cid if you want him to agree,” Vincent said.

“Yeah man,” Zack laughed. “That guy has got a temper.”

Cloud turned to find Rain looking in their direction.

No, he realized. He was looking all around him. At Zack, Vincent, Tifa and Aerith, Nanaki and even Cid. For once, the emotion was plain to see in his eyes. How much must he have missed his friends during those long years spent cut off from the world in his head?

Cloud caught his eyes and smiled. His brother smiled tremulously back.

 

* * *

 

The Corel troops departed for Junon the following day. They had to move quickly, before Deepground could hope to recover and regain any footing.

Much to his dismay, Rain was left in charge of the fleet of transport boats. Vincent, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and Nanaki went with him, but Sephiroth opted to stay behind. Bringing the troops back from Wutai was as tedious for Zack as it must have been for Shinra to get them there in the first place. Sephiroth took a small contingent to wait for them in Costa del Sol.

Rain had tried to argue that he could do that in his stead, that Sephiroth would be much more adequate to lead the fleet, but the SOLDIER would hear none of it. According to him, much of the heavy lifting had already been done and the crossing itself would be smooth sailing. Rain could just sit back and make sure everything ran smoothly.

Well, Rain begged to digger. Less than twenty-four hours in their journey and he had already been accosted by plenty of officers asking for his advice or his benediction on one thing or another. Even the boat captains deferred to him.

Rain was no military commander. He could lead a small team, sure. He even found himself unconsciously assuming that position more and more often since he had once more met with Barret, Nanaki and Cid, the memories bubbling at the back of his mind in a swell of nostalgia.

But an army?

Surely Sephiroth hadn’t needed to stay behind in person. He was doing this on purpose to force him away from his zone of comfort, he was convinced of it. And after he had expressly said he was okay leaving him to it, too.

“I’m sure he had his reasons,” Cloud would say when he grumbled about it.

He knew Cloud was doing his best to help, so he tried not to snap at him despite his irritation. Bumbling his way through a command post was putting him in a foul mood.

At least he managed to establish some sort of rapport with the regular officers and the SOLDIER Seconds that had stepped up to represent their peers. One day that he was snatching a moment of peace in one of the cargo bays, he overheard a conversation.

He had been idling behind the wheel of one of the numerous vehicles stored there bumper to bumper, feet on the passenger seat and absently fiddling with the radio. He squashed the off button when he heard the bay doors open. Footsteps and voices echoed in the vast space, but they were not coming in his direction. He relaxed.

Until the subject of the exchange caught up with him.

“What’s the deal with that Rain guy, anyway?”

“Don’t you know?” “I heard he was from Deepground,” two men said at the same time.

“I was gonna say that!” was huffed.

“Yeah, but… what’s the deal with him? Why is he on our side now? Is he really on our side? Why do we gotta obey _him_?”

There was a lull in the conversation as the group presumably reached its destination and started producing rummaging noises.

“There is this guy in Bolt’s squad…”

“Oh yeah, the blond one? With the two cute chicks and the freaking talking lion?”

“Word is he’s Rain’s cousin or something.”

“His brother, jerkwad. I tried to talk to him once, but he wouldn’t say much. Real tight-lipped.”

“Weirdness must run in the family. I mean, a talking lion?”

“I think it’s a tiger.”

“Whatever. Why are we even talking about that?”

“You don’t think it’s weird? No one had even heard from that Rain before and now he’s grand poobah around here.”

“I think Sephiroth left him in charge, that’s what I think. You wanna argue with Sephiroth about his choice of second-in-command? I mean, come on. It’s Sephiroth.”

A respectful hush fell over the cargo bay. The names of the four SOLDIER Firsts were practically revered these days, and Sephiroth’s most of all.

“He’s gotta know what’s up with him.”

“Yeah, and he still looked real tight with the man. I was at the Corel reactor, you know?”

A chorus of groans.

“Yeah, right. If anyone who said they were at the Corel reactor had actually been up there, it would have been a freaking concert hall.”

“I was, though! And Sephiroth completely ignored the Behemoth guy. Rain was fighting it not ten feet away from him, and he was all like, whatever man, this one is already dead. Turned his back to them and all.”

“Sephiroth is so awesome,” was breathed in wonder.

“Yeah. And it’s gotta take someone else pretty awesome to impress him like that. I’m fine respecting that.”

Their various agreements faded as they left the room and the doors closed behind them.

Something red moved in the shadows near the roof. Vincent peeked at him from the beam where he had been silently keeping him company. Rain was sure he wasn’t imagining the hint of amusement in his friend’s crimson eyes. He shrugged at him and looked away.

So, he was now officially Sephiroth’s second-in-command… and while it was tedious, he found with every passing day that he didn’t mind it as much as he should have.

Still, it was a true relief to reach Junon and let Angeal and Genesis step in charge. Unlike him, they knew what they were doing. In a few hours, all troops were assigned bunkers and the equipment was disembarked with brisk efficiency. Despite Junon being the second biggest Shinra HQ until their coup, it was a tight fit with so many soldiers around, especially with the prisoners they had to keep locked away.

Angeal patted his shoulder when he pointed it out.

“Yes, we know. Don’t worry, we are on it. Now that we’ve got your reinforcements, we’ll be able to send forces to the rest of the continent. If we can retake Kalm, Midgar will be completely cut off.”

Yeah.

So they did know what they were doing.

Vincent departed with the fleet on its return journey to Costa del Sol, just in case Deepground had some boats lying around. The Highwind also granted support against a more likely aerial attack on the convoy.

It took less than a day for Rain to wish he had left with them. Junon was so well protected that Deepground would never dare launch an assault on the town. Now that he no longer had orders to give or sanction, his presence was by and large unnecessary.

Cloud, Aerith, Tifa and Nanaki took the opportunity to explore the city, which bloomed with energy now that the oppression was no more. He joined them for one of their expeditions, but found himself the odd man out.

These four had had time to get to know each other, and they got along like a house on fire. Although Nanaki was about as old as the other three put together, he was still a teenager according to his species’ lifetime. Cloud and Aerith tried their best to include him, but Rain felt like an adult bore when he witnessed their youthful energy and their laughter. He was glad Cloud had made such good friends… but they could do without a chaperone.

The distance hurt a little. However much he tried, he couldn’t help imagining himself in Cloud’s place. Aerith, Tifa and Nanaki had been _his_ friends, once upon a time…

But no, it wouldn’t have worked. He was too broken, now, and them still so young. That past, or future, was dead and buried. Maybe later, when they had matured a bit more…

He comforted himself with the thought and regretted Vincent’s quiet support. More than ever, he was grateful he had at least managed to reconnect with the sniper.

He was considering asking to go with the troops about to depart for Kalm when he received an unexpected phone call from Sephiroth. The flash of pleasure he felt as he looked at the caller ID was startling. He had no idea what to do with it and so promptly suppressed it.

If anything, he was good at denial.

It didn’t last, anyway. Sephiroth was calling to warn about an aborted attack on Costa del Sol.

“What?” he exclaimed.

“They were aiming for the docks; mostly heavy hitters with some artillery. They attacked in the dead of the night, of course. We were able to head them off with minimal damage to the facilities, but I lost some men.”

Sephiroth’s voice was matter-of-fact, though a hint of frustration filtered through as he mentioned the casualties.

“The boats?”

“Still about a day off the coast, according to Valentine.”

“Then why…?”

“We would be hard pressed to embark entire troops aboard without proper docking installations, Cloud,” Sephiroth remarked, obviously amused. “Wutai used to routinely destroy our ports on their land to slow us down. Necessity made them excellent guerrillas.”

“Ugh.”

He hadn’t thought about that at all. When he and his friends used to travel during their search for Sephiroth, they used chocobos, the buggy or the Highwind. After that, he had had nothing to do with the general organisation of WRO troops. Ironically enough, he was an ex-terrorist who knew next to nothing about guerrilla manoeuvres and how to foil them.

“Is that why you stayed?”

“Of course,” Sephiroth said, sounding bemused.

And now he felt like an ass. Here he’d been behaving like a surly teenager, convinced that Sephiroth was annoying him on purpose, when the man had simply been using all resources at his disposal.

“You could have told me,” he muttered, then regretted saying anything when Sephiroth just chuckled at him.

He requested an update of the situation in Junon, which Rain mechanically gave him. All the while, something was niggling at him. He finally placed it as the conversation was lulling down.

“Why did you call me?” he blurted out.

“Pardon?”

“Why did you call _me_? Why not Angeal or Genesis? I’m going to have to tell them everything you said anyway.”

These days the three friends seemed comfortable with each other, leaps and bounds from just weeks before. They worked together like well-oiled cogs, like a crisis was all they had needed to remember how they fit. Or was he mistaken?

“Hmm… I suppose I simply wanted to hear your voice.”

His brain screeched to a halt.

“Goodbye Cloud. See you soon.”

The line disconnected before a single thought could pass through the dizzying void in his head. It took a full minute for him to bring the phone away from his ear. He stared at the device, befuddled.

“… What?”

 

* * *

 

He met with Genesis and Angeal in the afternoon. They convened in one of the meeting rooms with a beautiful view of the city below. Genesis seemed content to stalk in front of the window and gaze down at it while Angeal sat at the table with Rain, hands folded on the rich wood as he listened. You could hardly see one man without the other lately.

“I suppose it’s nothing unexpected,” Angeal said as he finished recounting Sephiroth’s report. “Zack should reach him in two or three days, and he’ll have the Highwind tomorrow. If they are desperate, they’ll try again soon, but it won’t do them much good.”

“A week and we’ll be at full force,” Genesis agreed with a flash of sharp teeth. “We won’t let them stop us.”

“Zack hasn’t had any trouble?”

“Not yet, but they are still far into the lands. Difficult to reach by men coming directly from Midgar. We’re expecting him to encounter some form of resistance soon.”

Rain nodded.

“Hopefully the President will be too paranoid at this point to send either of his remaining Tsviets…”

“You worry as much as Angeal,” Genesis said, snorting.

Angeal grinned at Rain.

“Honestly, I expected you to be gone by now.”

“Gone?” he repeated, confused.

“It felt like a small miracle when Sephiroth said he had managed to convince you to lead your troops home without him, but I thought for sure you’d board a boat back to Costa del Sol as soon as you got here. And here I believed you couldn’t be removed from Sephiroth’s side without a shoehorn.”

Rain stared at him. Realisation hit him hard.

He _had_ sworn to keep watch on Sephiroth at all time. Yet at no point in the past week had he questioned the entire ocean that now lay between them. He felt antsy, sure, but it had little to do with imagining the man losing his mind and going on a rampage without his supervision.

When had he started letting his guard down so much? Was a common enemy really all it took to divert his attention?

He perfunctorily took leave of Angeal and Genesis, mind reeling. He had intended to ask about their plans for Kalm, but now he couldn’t believe he had thought to join in. He wouldn’t be going anywhere until Sephiroth set foot in Junon.

The troops left the next day with Angeal. Rain watched from afar as Angeal exchanged a warm handshake with Genesis, only stopped from a more demonstrative display by the presence of the men. To anyone who knew them from an informal setting, it was obvious they were loathe to separate.

That it was these men who had remarked on Rain’s propensity to stick to Sephiroth like glue was distressing.

He turned on his heels and walked away.

 

* * *

 

Zack collapsed gratefully in the armchair Sephiroth offered him.

“Maaan,” he said in a long sigh. “This trip took forever. Can we take a day off before loading everyone in the boats?”

Sephiroth’s sole answer to his puppy dog eyes was a smirk.

“You can take the night off,” he conceded grandly, even as the sun had already set behind the windows of his hotel room.

He opened the little fridge beneath the TV set and retrieved a bottle which he lobbed at his pouting friend. Zack brightened as he snatched the beer from mid-air and recognized his favourite brand. He twisted the cap off and guzzled half of it in the time it took Sephiroth to sit in the opposite chair.

“You can keep the room tonight,” he added. “I’ll be making rounds with Valentine and bunking down with the men to stave off any last minute surprise.”

Zack set greedy eyes on the king-size bed.

“I won’t say no, that’s for sure. You’re expecting trouble?”

“I’m always expecting trouble, but especially now. There hasn’t been any attack on your troops before you liaised with us. It’s highly suspect.”

“Yeah… I know what you mean. It’s making me paranoid.”

Zack rolled his head around, trying to loosen the kinks in his neck.

“Everyone in Junon is fine, right?”

“Nothing to report. Angeal will get to Kalm tomorrow or the day after. The Turks warn he should meet some resistance, but nothing insurmountable.”

“Right. Yeah. That’s good.”

He sounded distracted. Sephiroth allowed himself a small smile.

“I’m sure Miss Gainsborough is in perfect health.”

Zack blushed.

“I know, I know! And I swear I’m not just thinking of her. I worry for everyone. I just… I miss her, is all.”

He shrugged, embarrassed.

“Sorry. You don’t need me being a sap.”

He took a sip of his beer to compose himself. Sephiroth kept silent long enough to earn a quizzical glance. He slowly took his gloves off, pensive.

“I… actually envy you,” he admitted.

Zack’s eyes widened.

“Me?”

“To have someone you care so deeply about, and have them care back…”

He cut himself off and glanced away. Zack coughed, surprised.

“Well, you know… I’m lucky. I mean, I’m _super_ lucky. Aerith is awesome, and it’s incredible that she feels about me the way I do about her. And my friends are her friends, and I know they care about her too and I can sleep easy knowing they’ll protect her even when I can’t. When I think about what could have happened if Rain hadn’t gotten her out of Midgar…”

He shuddered and gulped the last of his drink, setting the bottle on the coffee table. Sephiroth tilted his head and stared at him.

“If I may…”

“Uh?” Zack said, clearly unused to having him behave with any kind of uncertainty.

Sephiroth almost reconsidered asking the question. It was really none of his business, and emotional conversations were not his forte. Still, despite all his attempts to ignore the matter, it kept niggling at him.

“Do you never get bothered by the way Miss Gainsborough and Cloud act toward each other?”

“Clou— Oh, you mean… the oldest one.”

The face Zack made then, scrunching his nose and wincing, was unexpected. Sephiroth felt a fool for having presumed. Just because Zack was usually an open book didn’t mean he was incapable of hiding the feelings he’d rather not advertise.

“I apologize.”

“No, it’s not…” Zack sighed, shoulders slumping. “Yeah, it bothers me. I’d like to say I’m a better man than that, ‘cause… ‘cause it’s kinda dumb. Aerith would tell me if there was anything there, I know she would. She wouldn’t hide important stuff like that. And I trust Cloud, so I trust Rain too, even though I don’t know the guy half as well as I’d want to. It just… Well, that’s jealousy for you. Nothing logical about it.”

He shrugged awkwardly. Sephiroth felt a pang of fondness for the young man.

“I don’t think you have anything to be ashamed of, Zack,” he said, smiling. “Have you tried talking to her about it?”

“I don’t want her to think I don’t trust her. I do!”

“But is it really a good idea to let the wound fester? You don’t have to make accusations. That’s obviously not how you feel about it. Just tell her it bothers you. Put your mind at rest once and for all. From what I know of her, she’ll understand.”

“She always understands,” Zack agreed, brightening. “You know, I think I’ll do that. Thanks, Sephiroth!”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Uh. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to… Well,” he said, blinking in confusion. “That’s not a conversation I expected to have with you.”

Sephiroth snorted in dismissal.

“I’ll leave you to your rest,” he said, getting up. “See you tomorrow, bright and early.”

“You got it. Goodnight, Sephiroth!”

Sephiroth let the door click shut behind him.

For a moment, he stood still in the corridor. He could hear faint sounds in some of the nearby rooms as the officers lodged on this floor prepared for sleep. In the relative silence, he let himself think what he hadn’t dared to earlier.

_It bothers me too._

His phone chimed in his pocket. He opened it to find a message from Rain. Against his will, his eyes lightened. It was an enquiry about some of the SOLDIERs Sephiroth had sent back to Junon with him. The questions were perfectly benign, suspiciously so, and of little import now that Rain was no longer required to interact with the men on a regular basis.

He felt his lips stretch in an involuntary smile. Had he flustered him so badly the last time they had talked that he felt obligated to check in?

Or his paranoia had finally awakened, like Sephiroth had expected it to since the moment they had parted ways. His mood plummeted as abruptly as it had lifted. The phone casing creaked under the tight grip he was subjecting it to. He forced himself to relax.

He had to make things so much harder for himself, didn’t he? A lifetime of keeping people at arm’s length, of only a couple of painstakingly forged and perilous friendships; yet even as it was barely recovering from all the lies and the betrayals, his usually so careful heart had to fall for the man that would always see a ghost when he looked at him.

Sephiroth didn’t make a habit of lying to himself. He knew what it meant when you felt someone’s absence from your side so keenly, when seeing their name on a phone screen made you want to smile, when the attention they showered on someone else gave a twinge in your chest. He knew, even as it was the first time it had happened to him. He cursed the distance that had allowed him to untangle the tangled spool of his feelings, just as he was grateful for the clarity it had brought.

For a moment, the bitterness nearly had him write back something cutting, a sarcastic reassurance that he hadn’t lost his mind yet, thank you for checking.

But he sighed and composed a bland answer. He clacked his phone shut and strode down the corridor, letting the shadows of the night swallow him.

 

* * *

 

Rain’s skin wouldn’t stop crawling.

A man like President Shinra must surely be panicking by now, and panic should have made him sloppy. But instead of desperate and easily fended off attacks, the only thing they got was this eerie calm. The last troops had embarked for their crossing without any mishap. Kunsel hadn’t reported to Zack in weeks.

The anticipation and the inaction were threatening to drive him mad. The boats couldn’t arrive soon enough. At least then he would have something — someone — specific to watch out for. He could only check on Sephiroth through text messages so much before the man realised what he was up to and took offense.

When he once more found his fingers poised over his phone’s keyboard that evening, he had to wrench himself away from the temptation. He threw the device on the bed of his officer quarters and got out.

It was late, most of HQ was already dark for the night. He walked through the corridors, needing to let out some of the nervous energy that wouldn’t let him sleep. Maybe he could head to the gyms, get a workout. He was about to make for the elevators when he noticed a familiar pink ribbon out of the corner of his eye.

Aerith sat at a table in one of the common rooms, nursing a cup of something steaming from one of the vending machines. She looked up when he came in, startled and skittish, but relaxed and smiled when she recognized him. Her hair was down, the ribbon tied around her wrist so she wouldn’t lose it. She was bare-footed and only wore a white nightgown. She was a vision of loveliness.

He sat near her, feeling calmer already.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Her smile turned sheepish, her cheeks coloured faintly.

“Ah, no. It’s a bit silly.”

Her bashfulness made a rush of affection warm his heart. He nearly reached out to brush a wayward lock of hair out of her eyes, but stopped. He reminded himself that she was much younger than him, now, and not that close to him besides. She would probably get uncomfortable. But thoughts of what was appropriate or not made him realize:

“You miss Zack.”

Her blush darkened and she averted her eyes to her drink.

“I know he’ll be here soon, but… It’s like the closer he is, the more I miss him. See? I told you it was silly.”

“I wouldn’t know,” he said with a shrug. “But I’m glad.”

“Glad?”

“Seeing you and Zack… You… mean a lot to me. Both of you. As friends, of course, but not only…” He stopped, not knowing how to describe the strength of everything they inspired in him. “Seeing you happy together, it’s a symbol to me. It reminds me of everything I’ve lost and saved. It pushes me to be better, to fight harder, to protect everything I hold dear. If I can keep you safe and smiling…”

… then maybe he could forgive himself one day. But he didn’t say that. He had already said too much, really. He didn’t want to burden this fragile Aerith with his mistakes and his regrets.

“… Sorry.”

She shook her head wordlessly. He was alarmed to see the faintest sheen of tears in her eyes. Before he could think of something to say to fix his stupidity, she threw her arms around him. He froze, taken aback.

“I’m glad we’re so precious to you… but I’m also sad…”

“Sad?”

“You shouldn’t have to look to other people for happiness. You should be happy yourself.”

She drew back and looked him in the eye, deadly serious.

“When this is over, we should find you someone of your own.”

He gaped.

“What? Why would you…”

“I’m sure Cloud would be happy to see you date, too. We worry about you, sometimes. You’re always so serious, and you don’t have many people to talk to here.”

Aerith would always be Aerith, after all: compassionate to a fault and forever searching for ways to better the world around her. She had so neatly turned the tables on him he had to chuckle.

“I’m fine, Aerith, really.”

“You say that, but you look very glum these days.”

“I’m just tense, that’s all. It’s all the waiting that’s getting to me. I’ll be better once we start moving again.”

“Okay…” she said reluctantly. “But you know you can talk to us, right?”

“I know.”

And because his heart was full to bursting with fondness and gratitude, he shoved propriety in the back burner for a moment and kissed her forehead. She made a little “oh”. He retreated to see her blushing, but smiling.

The sound of someone clearing their throat burst their little bubble. They turned to see Tifa, Cloud and Re— Nanaki standing in the door. Tifa was glaring more balefully than usual in his direction, and strangely, he couldn’t read the look on Cloud’s face. Worry, confusion, something else entirely? Both were wearing their night clothes, though Cloud held his sheathed sword in one hand.

“What’s going on?” Rain asked, puzzled. “Why are you all up?”

“Apologies,” Nanaki said. “It’s my fault. I have a very strange feeling. I woke Cloud up, and he agreed we should investigate…”

“And then they came to get me, and that’s when we realized you weren’t in our room,” Tifa told Aerith. “We were worried!”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Well, next time, please do. You shouldn’t wander around alone in this place, especially dressed like that. You never know what scoundrel could try to take advantage.”

She sent a pointed look Rain’s way, but he was already approaching Nanaki.

“What kind of feeling?”

Nanaki looked chagrined.

“I’m sorry, I don’t really know. It’s the first time I’ve felt anything like this. Something is wrong. That’s all I can tell.”

His ears flattened on his head as if he expected to be berated. But Rain knew better than to ignore his old friend’s instincts. Nanaki’s species had a unique connection to the Planet and senses far superior to those of humans.

Besides, now that he focused, he could kind of feel something too. His conversation with Aerith had helped to quiet his nerves down, but now they began to thrum anew. Something was definitely amiss. It was too quiet.

“I suppose there’s no chance of persuading you three to go back to sleep?” he asked the three teenagers.

The looks he received said it all. He sighed.

“Alright. Can you try and pinpoint that feeling, Nanaki?”

Nanaki perked up and nodded, apparently heartened by his willingness to listen. He led them to the elevator banks where they piled in a cabin. Rain hadn’t undressed for bed before leaving his quarters, and a long-ingrained habit had him carrying his weapons around even in a military base full of allies. He was grateful for it as they rose through the floors and goosebumps started to bloom on his forearms.

On a whim, he jabbed the button for the SOLDIER floor. Nanaki blinked at him but didn’t argue.

All was calm as they stepped out. Rain took the lead and hurried down the corridor where Angeal and Genesis had their quarters. Two SOLDIERs should have been there, standing guard. There was no sign of them now, not even any trace of a fight. Rain’s ears popped in the ringing silence.

But no. It wasn’t so much due to the absence of noise as to a queer hint of pressure.

Rain threw himself at the next door down, barging in as if the splintering lock was made of paper.

“Genesis! Wake up!”

There was a cut-off curse from the bedroom. He made it to the doorway to see Genesis roll to the ground just in time to avoid the pocket of darkness erupting above the bed where he had lain a second before.

He caught the SOLDIER’s arm to haul him back to his feet. Dishevelled and clad only in sleep pants, Genesis was pale from the near miss, his wide eyes obvious even in the dim light. Even so, his hand flew unerringly to the blade propped against the wall at his bedside.

Tifa slapped the light switch. Nero instantaneously came to sight. He was hovering in the air in a corner of the room, his shadows standing out like a sore thumb against the harsh electrical light. He grunted at being discovered and disappeared.

“After him!” Rain barked. “Before he vanishes all the SOLDIERs on this floor.”

Belatedly, as they reached the hallway, he added:

“Stay together and watch each other’s backs. Be very careful. He can come from anywhere.”

Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and Nanaki nodded, grim-faced. Genesis strode out behind them. He had found the time to snatch his red coat. He made a beeline for the nearest fire alarm, smashed the glass with his bare fist and pulled the handle down. A shrill scream filled the air, making all of them wince.

“No one is going to sleep through that,” Genesis said. “The entire tower will be awake. I need to get to the control room to deliver a proper warning.”

“I’ll come with you,” Rain said.

Genesis relaxed visibly and nodded. He would never have been so transparent in other circumstances. Nero’s darkness scared him. Rain couldn’t trust that he’d hold his own if he went alone. Still, he didn’t like the idea of leaving Cloud and the others. Perhaps sensing his hesitation, Tifa took the decision from his hands.

“We’ll go round up everyone we can find!”

“Yeah, leave it to us,” Cloud concurred, leaving Rain feeling at once annoyed and proud. “We’ll warn everyone on this floor and send them down to help others.”

He sighed, but didn’t argue. Genesis was already turning away and he hurried after him.

They took the stairs, neither of them fancying the odds of surviving an elevator ride if one of Nero’s portals bloomed in the cabin. When they arrived, the tower’s surveillance booth was as ominously empty as the SOLDIER floor had appeared. The room was dark, only lit by the pale glow of dozens of camera monitors. Two tables sat in the middle of the space. On one of them, a mug waited in front of a toppled chair. When Rain brushed his fingers against it, the liquid inside was still tepid.

Genesis stepped up to one of the bank of equipments and started fiddling with it. From his frustrated grunt, he wasn’t very familiar with the system. Rain had no help to offer there.

The blaring of the fire alarm swallowed the sound of the portal opening. It was only the feeling of his ears popping once again that had Rain dive to the floor, ducking sudden gunfire. He rolled behind one of the tables and unsheathed Remus in one smooth movement.

Time to see if the blades would hold their promises.


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, it’s been 7 months already? Hum, hi. Fear not! That was only partly due to the story giving me trouble (like, I’m seriously sick of the last scene of this chapter; seriously) and mostly to some minor disaster in my personal life. But hopefully it’s resolved now, and I’m still on track to finish this.
> 
> Also, I’ve got a brand new Tumblr (https://yourdragonisinanothercastle.tumblr.com/) if you feel like stalking me there.

Command had never been so tedious.

The docking crews seemed to take an hour to process each piece of equipment, the logistics officers struggled to make sense of it all. A few rebellious squads had even escaped their duties to go celebrate their arrival in Junon, leaving everyone scrambling to pick up the slack.

Sephiroth was livid. An insurgency was no reason to forego discipline. On the contrary, it made it all the more urgent to stay strong and united lest Shinra crush them. Those fools would soon learn their lesson, as would the rest of the troops when he made an example of them.

He snatched the clipboard an officer was offering him, barely holding back his anger. It was days like these that he remembered why Cloud was so wary of him: when the world seemed to conspire against him and destructive urges boiled under his skin.

“I haven’t seen this temper in a while, my friend.”

He whirled away from the uneasy officer. Part of the heavy weight holding his shoulders rigid fell away as a familiar red figure loped to him.

“Genesis,” he said, straight-faced.

His friend smiled, not fooled by his aloofness but pleased by what he saw behind it. They shook hands. Genesis squeezed his more tightly than usual, maybe more tightly than he had meant to given how quickly he let go afterwards. There were shadows under his eyes.

“Everything is under control?”

“Yes, my friend. We burned the body for good measure. That’s a third Tsviet we won’t be hearing from anymore.”

Sephiroth tilted his head.

“And you are alright?”

“Barely a scratch on me,” Genesis said, deliberately misunderstanding him.

When Sephiroth pointedly kept silent, he deflated a bit and conceded:

“I apologize for my lateness. The infirmary crew deemed necessary to drug me and let me oversleep. I had… difficulties resting.”

The words surprised Sephiroth. Genesis had always been reluctant to admit to any weakness in front of him. That it had taken so little for him to cave was significant. Their shared torture in Nero’s darkness had changed something in their dynamic.

In honour of it, he dropped the subject to brief him on the disembarkment operations, pretending he didn’t see the flash of gratitude in Genesis’ eyes. The docking had to take precedence anyway. He had let Zack escape fifteen minutes ago when his flower girl had found him in the crowd, but now he regretted it keenly. There was still much work to be done and he shouldn’t have let fondness override his practical mind. Never mind that he could and should have anticipated the burning envy now making his voice sharper.

When at least the process was well underway, Genesis reappeared at his side in the harbourmaster’s booth and watched as he finished a short conversation with a tired-looking officer. Sephiroth suffered through the scrutiny, but turned a glare on him as soon as the man left them in privacy.

“Yes?” he prompted icily.

Genesis’ eyebrows took flight.

“My friend, are _you_ feeling alright?”

He closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose.

“I am fine.”

There was a cautious silence.

“You know he will recover swiftly, don’t you?”

Though he tried, Sephiroth discovered himself completely unable to smother his eagerness as his attention snapped back to his friend.

Because no, actually, he didn’t know. Because no one had thought it necessary to tell him more than the bare bones of what had occurred, and he was too self-aware and too prudent to expose his soft underbelly by asking.

Too late, he thought as Genesis’ eyes widened.

They remained frozen that way for a second that lasted an eternity. What was Genesis thinking? Was he inwardly crowing at having at long last found a weakness in Sephiroth’s armour? He couldn’t read him. Stupefaction hid anything else he may have felt.

Finally, Genesis smiled. There was something to that smile. Vindictiveness, or awe?

“Go on, then. Get going. I’ll take care of the rest here.”

Sephiroth hesitated.

“ _Go_ , Sephiroth.”

He nodded jerkily and strode to the door. As he stepped past his friend, he slowed. Genesis slid him a sideways look and a smirk.

“I have long awaited for you to step down from that pedestal and feel the same way we mere mortals do, my friend,” he said sotto voce.

His shoulder knocked gently against Sephiroth’s, soothing whatever sting the words could carry. Sephiroth pressed his lips together against the curve they wanted to take. He knocked back, although forcefully enough that Genesis had to stumble aside, and made his escape. A chuckle followed him in the late afternoon light.

He took a car, declined the soldiers that offered their driver or escort services. He was in Junon HQ not ten minutes later, briskly crossing the parking lot to the elevator. The cabin deposited him on the infirmary level. He stepped out slowly, getting his bearings. He had never had cause to come to this floor before.

“SOLDIER First Class Sephiroth!” a doctor bustled up to him. “What an honour. How may I help you in this fine evening?”

“Rain Strife?”

“Ah, very popular, this young man. Very stubborn, too. Please convince him to stay for one more night of observation? I fear he will attempt an escape as soon as his visitors leave him room to breathe.”

Sephiroth felt himself relax a little as he was pointed down a hallway. That didn’t sound so bad. A door opened as he approached. Out came Zack and the young Miss Gainsborough. Zack’s face lit up when he saw him.

“Hey, you made it! Docking is done?”

Some petty part of Sephiroth raised its ugly head to snarl that he had given Zack leave so he could spend time with _his_ romantic interest, not visit Sephiroth’s while he himself was stuck at the docks. He pushed it back.

“Genesis insisted on finishing himself.”

He joined them and glanced inside the room. Cloud was slouched on the bed in a thin hospital gown and looking rather sour about it. Strife was adjusting the covers around his lap while ranting in a worried tone of voice, either not seeing or ignoring the efforts his elder was making in not rolling his eyes. They caught sight of him at the same time.

“Sephiroth!” Strife said, straightening up. “Welcome back, sir.”

He nodded and stepped inside. A new glance around the room turned up Vincent lurking in a corner. The ex-Turk nodded at him and exited, apparently satisfied with the health of his friend.

“Just go get dinner already,” Cloud grumbled at Strife.

The young man hesitated.

“Alright,” he said after a moment, apparently comforted by Sephiroth’s presence. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

Cloud huffed. Strife joined Zack and Aerith at the door. Cloud strained to watch them leave. When they were gone, he finally deigned to grant Sephiroth a modicum of attention.

“Close the door, would you?”

Sephiroth crossed his arms and didn’t move.

“How are your wounds?”

“Not you too,” Cloud groaned, glaring.

“I don’t know you well enough to tell whether your foolhardiness encroaches into self-harm territory, Cloud.”

“It _doesn’t_. I know my limits, damn it. It’s just a bullet wound and it only caught muscle.”

He wrenched the gown from his shoulders to expose a bandage around his midriff, eliciting a spark of lust that Sephiroth suppressed without mercy. Cloud pointed at a spot on the white cloth and Sephiroth called to mind all his knowledge of anatomy. It could have made all kinds of damage depending on the angle, really, but given how little everyone seemed to worry, including the doctor, he was inclined to believe him.

“I hate doctors, Sephiroth.”

The look in his eyes made the words heavy with hidden meaning, but Sephiroth hardly needed subtitles.

“Strife will be coming back,” he said all the same, although not without kindness. “I doubt you want to worry him. You’ll have more luck getting out after dark and pretending you left in the early hours of the morning.”

Cloud sighed, but conceded the point by dropping back against the pillow.

“As long as I don’t have to sleep here, I guess…” he grumbled.

Sephiroth took the chair at his bedside.

“Nero chose the timing of his attack well. With our troops still off the shore, it is fortunate that you and Genesis had each other’s backs. The President must be getting desperate to whittle down our most powerful fighters before we march for Midgar.”

Cloud shrugged stiffly, eyes on the ceiling. The knot of tension that had just begun to unravel in Sephiroth’s chest tightened. What could he have done to trigger the cold shoulder this time? He had not even _been_ there. He stretched an arm out to push the door closed, face carefully blank.

“Cloud?” he prompted.

“It’s just… that fight,” he confessed haltingly.

Sephiroth breathed easier. Not about him after all. He had to stop letting his feelings impair his judgment.

“I’m listening.”

“Nero and Weiss are brothers. I told you about Weiss, didn’t I?” The last Tsviet. Yes, he remembered. “He’s the only person Nero has ever truly been loyal to. Last night, at the end of the fight… Nero was injured, weakening, and he panicked. He opened a portal. I stopped him before he could cross through — that’s when I got the wound — and Genesis finished him, but…”

“You think he was fleeing,” Sephiroth completed. “Nero had already fled from us once. The President has his back against the wall. He would have given the order than he not come back before he had killed one of you. And you think he was defying that order.”

Cloud nodded.

“The death of three Restrictors would have weakened the fourth one’s hold on Deepground?”

Cloud shrugged, looking frustrated. He was as much of an expert as they had on the subject, and he still didn’t know much. Of course, this also was exactly what he had warned them about.

“I see. Well, the good news is we have just about confined Deepground to the Midgar region. If they do escape control, it will be the only town to suffer.”

It was cold comfort, and he expected the livid glare it got him.

“It’s not even them I’m worried about,” Cloud spat, to his surprise. “I can’t tell how Weiss is going to react now that his brother is dead, but it won’t be good. And he is strong, Sephiroth. Maybe as strong as you.”

He tilted his head, amused. It took a few seconds for Cloud to get the subtle dig at his own power. He blinked and his eyes widened.

“What?… Shut up. Ugh,” he said, turning away with a thunderous frown. “What are you even doing here?”

“I can’t be worried about you?”

Cloud snorted. There was so much contempt in the sound it broke right through shields already battered by hours, _days_ of fear and frustration. Sephiroth had little experience with either emotion, which of course made it fitting that Cloud would elicit both in him.

“I suppose I’m here to soothe your paranoia so I can later fly under your radar to commit nefarious deeds, then,” he snapped.

Cloud goggled at him.

“What are you…”

“You won’t accept the truth, so I thought I’d give lying a try. It’s what you expect of me, isn’t it?”

The silence was deafening. He thought the shock on Cloud’s face should have been satisfying. Instead, it only made it hard to breathe. He sighed, looked away.

“Apologies.”

_I haven’t slept since I received the call_ , he wanted to say. _I’ve waited all day to see you. I am so glad you are alright._

He said none of it.

A rustle of sheets betrayed Cloud fidgeting.

“… You did notice the checkups, then.”

“You’re not very subtle, Cloud.”

A sigh. Sephiroth wasn’t expecting an apology. He didn’t get one. They were both powerless to fight off old nightmares and the remains of all-consuming fear, and they knew it. This was the bitter truth Sephiroth now had to live with every day.

“You’re always so unruffled I can never tell if it bothers you,” Cloud muttered.

Sephiroth caught his eyes.

“Assume it always bothers me, Cloud.”

“What?” Cloud blinked.

And then the words wouldn’t be silent anymore. He was sick of holding them back anyway.

“It may surprise you to hear that your opinion matters to me. You are a brave and clever man, with a better heart than I could ever brag about. You changed my life and I will never stop being grateful to you for it. I trust you, and I value your advice. I care what you think of me. I care about you, period. So yes, when you look at me and see someone else, someone you always expect to stab you in the back, it bothers me.”

He stood up while Cloud was still gaping.

“Take care, Cloud. I will inform the doctor you are sleeping and suggest not to bother you until Strife comes back.”

 

* * *

 

Zack was gamely snatching as much food as he could fit on his tray. He felt ravenous today. He called a cheerful greeting to the kitchen staff and moved off the line, humming to himself. It was early enough that the officer mess had plenty of seating space, but he scanned the room for a familiar face. It was always a drag to eat alone.

He perked up at noticing spiky bright blond hair in one of the back corners. Despite his trooper status, Cloud had special access to the officer mess so he could eat with their civilian companions. That left two possibilities for the identity of the guy he was walking up to…

“Rain!” he called when he came close enough to recognize him. Delighted, he bounded up to his table and dropped into the empty seat across from him. “They let you out of the infirmary already? Cool! You wanna spar later? Or, well, maybe it’s still a bit early. And maybe we won’t have the time, I dunno. We’ll probably be moving quickly, uh?”

He started on his breakfast, leaving Rain to blink at his boisterous appearance.

“… Hi.”

“Hey! I’m glad I caught you, actually. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

He had finally had that long-overdue conversation with Aerith last night. She had laughed at him and called him silly for being jealous, which he had kind of expected, but she had also kissed him afterwards, and it had just generally been an awesome evening. So, bolstered by that success, he figured he would use his momentum to address the matter with Rain and put it to rest for good. Rain was a good guy. He knew Aerith was taken. Surely he would understand and back off a little.

“… Oh?”

Zack stopped shovelling food in his mouth to watch him. Rain’s fork was drawing nonsensical patterns in the remains left on his plate. He looked very much distracted. Zack bent forward to try and catch his eyes.

“You okay?”

“Uh?” Rain jumped. “Oh… Sorry, I…”

He sighed and reclined against the back of his chair, letting his fork clatter down in the tray.

“Zack, are you… friends with Sephiroth?”

“Friends?” he said, taken aback. “Well, I guess… I mean, I like to think we are, but I’m not as close to him as Angeal and Genesis, you know. Or you, probably.”

“Me?” Rain squeaked out, then promptly blushed at the sound that had left his mouth.

Zack wanted to snort in laughter, so rare was it to see that guy lose countenance, but he managed to stop himself in deference of how honestly spooked he looked.

“I don’t know, aren’t you?” he asked in confusion. “It’s hard to tell with you guys. One moment you’re inseparable, the next you’re avoiding each other… But he kind of seems to like your company?”

That seemed to break Rain’s heart.

“He does?” he whispered.

He stood up, picking up his tray like an afterthought.

“Excuse me.”

“Hey, wait!” Zack called as he hurried away. “I wanted to talk to you…”

He slumped as Rain made no sigh of having heard him. So much for that, he thought, sighing.

 

* * *

 

Midgar hung like a bloated wart on the horizon. Usually it would shine brightly under its heavy shroud of dark clouds, casting the surrounding wasteland in sharp contrast, but tonight only the Mako reactors and the Shinra tower lit the night. Kunsel’s last message had mentioned a curfew. It could only have gotten worse since First Class had forced President Shinra in his last positions.

Perched on an outcrop near the army camp, Sephiroth held infrared binoculars to his face. Even with his superior eyesight and the help of the instrument, he couldn’t gather much information. The streetlights were dark. He could see vague warm shapes moving in the shadows, presumably Deepground’s patrols. As for the tower, it appeared ominously still.

“Watch duty, Sephiroth? Really?”

He lowered his hands and looked down. At the foot of his post, Genesis and Zack had appeared near the two troopers already waiting.

“Don’t you think your talents would be better used elsewhere?” Genesis drawled. “Stop depriving these poor men of their job.”

Sephiroth smirked at his friend. He jumped twenty feet to the ground, landing in a small cloud of pale dust. He turned to the infantrymen, handing the binoculars back with a nod of thanks. They saluted and proceeded to climb the rock up to their station.

“Should we expect an attack tonight?” Zack asked as they started back for the camp.

“Probably not,” Sephiroth said. “Shinra has locked himself up in Midgar. If I know the man at all, he intends to fortify his position and force us to come to him.”

“You know what this means,” Genesis said, grim.

“We’ll have to fight in the streets.”

Zack looked horrified.

“What? But what about the civilians?”

“He doesn’t care. If he can psych us out by forcing us in this position, all the better.”

“The men won’t like that,” Genesis said.

“No one will. But our only other option is a prolonged siege, and the civilians would suffer even more. Shinra and Deeground have enough supplies in and under the tower to last for far longer than any inhabitants of the slums. Like it or not, we have to go on the offensive.”

Zack had obviously not realized how ugly this was going to get. He still had friends in the city and in Shinra. It was the downside of being such a personable man, Sephiroth supposed. He put a hand on his shoulder in silent support. At least his girlfriend was where he could protect her, for whatever good it might do her in the coming days.

Zack took a deep breath and visibly braced himself.

“Okay. Okay. Man, this would be so much easier if we knew what’s going on in there…”

Kunsel was crafty, but his silence bore ill news. And insider intelligence would have been invaluable, Sephiroth couldn’t deny it.

“We can expect barricades and traps in the streets. Worst case scenario, the population will have been turned against us.”

“I don’t suppose Rain has any last minute ace up his sleeve?” Genesis said.

Sephiroth shrugged. If he did, he would have mentioned it by now. The man had been part of all their preparatory meetings in Junon.

“He’s not a magician. We’ll have to play this one the old-fashioned way.”

Genesis sent him an annoyed look.

“Is he avoiding you again?” he asked outright, confirming his ulterior motives for bringing him up.

Sephiroth glared at him, not appreciating the barely disguised attempt to meddle. He didn’t dare rebuke him aloud, however. They had crossed the first tents and he refused to broach the subject where anyone could eavesdrop, even would he have chosen to let Zack hear it.

“No, he is not,” he snapped in a tone that brooked no argument.

Never mind the fact that the only words they had exchanged these past few days had pertained to the troops. But whatever Genesis thought, this one wasn’t on Cloud’s sole shoulders. Sephiroth had said more than he had meant to the last time they had spoken, and while he did not regret it, he had upset the careful balance of their relationship. They were both left in this awkward dance around each other, trying to find their footing again. The last thing they needed was exterior intervention, be it well-meaning.

Genesis huffed, unconvinced. He would probably have dropped the subject had Zack not chosen that moment to jump in.

“You guys are okay, then? Only I had kind of a weird conversation with him the other day and he didn’t look so good.”

Sephiroth cursed the puppy’s marshmallow heart when Genesis, emboldened by the support, said:

“I don’t know if we’re doing the man any good by catering to his whims. Avoiding issues to this extent can’t be healthy.”

“Woah! Angeal?” Zack exclaimed. “What are you doing in Genesis’ body?”

Genesis smirked.

“I will do you a favour and ignore the bow-wrapped opening you just gave me, Puppy.”

“Uh?”

“He has a point, though,” Sephiroth said. “You channelled Angeal quite superbly just now.”

Genesis rolled his eyes.

“You are not subtle, Sephiroth. But fine. Manage your guardian angel as you want.”

“Thank you, I will.”

 

* * *

 

“I’m just really worried about Mom,” Aerith whispered, downcast. “And my neighbours. And the church… I hope the flowers are doing okay.”

Cloud watched as Tifa wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulders and made commiserating noises. Nanaki sat on the city girl’s other side, his warm flank pressed against her thighs. He gazed mournfully up at her. It was Aerith’s home they were leading an army towards. It couldn’t be easy for her.

Sitting opposite the fire from them, Cloud gathered the dishes from their dinner and listened in clumsy silence. He didn’t know how to help make her feel better.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have left. In the end, I didn’t help much, and if I had stayed, I could have taken care of the flowers and made sure Mom was safe…”

“Don’t say that!” Tifa protested. “I’m glad you came. You’d have let me be the only girl around all those… _boys_?”

Against her will, Aerith let out a giggle.

“You helped us tons,” Cloud supplemented earnestly, “even when it wasn’t obvious. It’s thanks to you that we all stayed so positive. I’m sure Zack at least wouldn’t have been nearly as strong if you hadn’t been there.”

“What’s that about me?”

“Zack!” Cloud greeted with relief as his friend stepped into their little circle of light.

“What’s going on?” Zack said, assessing the scene with a curious smile.

“Oh… I am just being silly and making everyone worry about me,” Aerith confessed with a trace of humour.

“Oh well, that’s not good!” Zack gasped dramatically. “You are making your friends worry, but not me? Now I feel like a horrible boyfriend. Am I a horrible boyfriend, Aerith?”

She pursed her lips to hide a smile and made a show of humming pensively. Zack sagged.

“I see how it is… Ah, but I won’t admit defeat!” he boasted. “I’ll just have to make up for it. And since there are no flowers around for a flower cart… how about a moonlit stroll?”

He held out a hand to help her to her feet. Aerith blushed delicately. She kept her face straight, but there was no denying the happiness in her eyes.

“Oh well… I suppose.”

She let herself be led away from the fire. Zack winked at the rest of them.

“Sorry guys, I am kidnapping this fair maiden. I promise to bring her back before midnight.”

Tifa waited until they were out of earshot, or at least out of Aerith’s earshot, to say:

“Aaw, they are so adorable together.”

“He is good for her,” Nanaki declared gravely.

“Yeah, he is,” Cloud said. “And vice-versa, I think. Does this mean you forgive Zack for being a SOLDIER?” he asked Tifa.

She sighed and kicked at the ground.

“Well, I guess. I mean, I’ve spent months with these guys, I suppose they aren’t so bad. And Zack really _is_ a puppy. A big one, though. With sharp teeth.”

“Hehe, yeah. Pretty much.”

A silence fell. Nanaki rose to his feet and stretched.

“I think I will go to bed early. Tomorrow will be a long and hard day. Good night Cloud, Tifa. Don’t stay up too late.”

“Good night,” they said in unison.

It was just the two of them, now. Cloud didn’t make a big deal out of it until Tifa moved around the fire to come sit next to him, so close that their shoulders brushed. Then he tensed and fought the warmth that tried to rise to his cheeks.

“Tomorrow _will_ be a hard day, uh?” she said softly.

Was she worried?

“You’ll probably stay far away from the frontline. Zack will be busy, and I’m still waiting for my orders. It’ll be up to you and Nanaki to protect Aerith.”

“I know,” she scoffed. “But I’m not an idiot, Cloud. Zangan told me about war, a little. He said in big battles, the only thing you can predict is that people will die and children will cry. It doesn’t matter where we are, we’ll probably fight too. And if you’re not with us, I’ll be worrying about you.”

He gave her a shy smile.

“I’ll be careful.”

“You’d better be!”

“The SOLDIERs will have it the hardest, anyway.”

“Yeah… They’ll be in the thick of it. Them and… you know. Rain.”

He shifted, uncomfortable.

“Yeah.”

“Are you… afraid?”

“For him? Well… yeah,” he admitted. “I guess his wound is mostly healed by now but… I think I’ve been afraid to lose him since he first gained a body of his own. It’s still hard, not having him around all the time. But it’s something he has to do. And… I think I needed it too.”

She made an inquiring noise.

“To stand on my own. To fully understand the kind of person I can be without him, you know? Someone that’s not him. And Zack and the others are great too, but… I’m glad I spent these last few weeks with just you guys. I’ve had to think on my feet, without relying on someone’s orders or advice.”

“I know what you mean,” she said, smiling. “I feel like I’ve changed a lot since I left Nibelheim. I whine a lot less, for starters,” she added with a self-deprecating laugh. “It’s been scary and depressing at times, but I’m still happy I came. I guess that’s what growing up is all about, uh?”

She took his hand. His heart skipped a beat.

“Yeah,” he whispered, tangling their fingers together.

The light of the fire turned her brown eyes into twin pools of amber as she looked at him. They leaned forward at the same moment. Their lips met gently.

 

* * *

 

In the shadows of a nearby tent, Rain watched as a scene from another life coalesced before him. He backed away, careful not to make a sound. He had come to check on Cloud, but he had seen enough. He faded back in the quiet activity of the camp as it settled down for the night.

He remembered Tifa’s hands, soft on his skin but unrelenting on the battlefield. He remembered the hidden melancholy in her eyes, her calm maturity, the smiles and the strength she found for him every day. He had loved her in his own way, without passion but with all that his heart could hold of gratitude. There had been moments when she and Denzel’s faith and unconditional acceptance were all that had kept him going.

And he had failed them.

He hissed at the quick staccato of confusing memories that assailed him. His mind had blurred most of what had happened in the end, a double-edged blessing. Visions of the planet being torn apart aroused mere echoes of the terror and despair he had felt at the time, and that distance was without a doubt the only reason he remained sane, or as close as could be in his case. For all he knew, the Planet herself had made sure that her last weapon would be functional enough to serve her goals. But he hated feeling as if he was forgetting those he had abandoned to their deaths, even if it had not been his decision.

Yet he knew they wouldn’t blame him. Like Aerith, they were more forgiving of his faults than he himself was. For their sakes, he tried, but his sins were heavy on his shoulders.

“Cloud.”

He flinched.

As he reconnected with the present, he found himself standing in the middle of a quiet alley between two rows of tents. Sephiroth was striding towards him with an expression half-way between curiosity and concern.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh… Sephiroth. Hey.”

Faced with that lukewarm greeting, the man’s forehead creased.

“Is something wrong?” he repeated.

He huffed a humourless laugh.

“Just blaming myself for all the misery in the world, Tifa would say. Or — not Tifa. I mean… not this Tifa.”

He cut himself off and muttered a quiet swearword, hiding his eyes behind a hand.

“Sorry. Now is… not really a good time.”

He passed him, intent for the limits of the camp where he could have his crisis of faith away from prying eyes.

To his surprise, after a beat of silence, he heard footsteps shadow his own.

“It’s good that we crossed paths. I wanted to confirm tomorrow’s plan with you. Zack and Genesis will lead the troops, and Angeal and Lazard are coming in with our men from Kalm. You and I will detach ourselves from the main attack as soon as we reach the tower.”

Rain slowed down against his will, confused. Why was Sephiroth acting like everything was normal? Didn’t he realize this was exactly times like these he should be avoiding him if he didn’t want to hear unwelcome references to his alternate self?

Still caught halfway between past and present, he heard himself say:

“If we’re going to Reactor Zero, Vincent should come with us. He was the one who infiltrated to put a stop to Deepground’s rampage. I mean —” he fumbled a recovery. “In my time. We might need his talents.”

“Very well,” Sephiroth agreed without any remark. “As for our other companions, I have arranged for Aerith to remain with the medics behind the lines. Her talents will be put to good use.”

That made him wince. Sweet, still innocent Aerith on a battlefield… She would see much more gruesome wounds than she was used to. But the medics was the safest place for her, and he may not like it, but he understood the way Sephiroth thought. He was a military leader who couldn’t afford to waste resources.

He nodded reluctantly. He had to remember that Aerith was made of tougher stuff than she appeared to be.

“Cloud will serve with his old squad.”

He shifted, on edge. Regular troopers would be their rearguard.

Cloud would not want to miss the battle; he understood this very well, remembered that old drive to prove himself. At least his squad members seemed like decent men.

“I have assigned them to Aerith’s medical team.”

His head snapped up. Sephiroth smirked at his surprise.

“Knowing Deepground’s tactics, we can expect attacks on them, and they are a crucial resource.”

Cloud would see some action and still benefit from Tifa, Nanaki and Aerith’s support.

“Thanks,” he muttered, caught between relief and embarrassment.

Sephiroth shrugged it off. “It was logical.”

Rain stopped walking. They had crossed the last tents and stood facing the dark wasteland.

He could barely remember why he had wanted to come here. Sephiroth had completely yanked him off kilter, steering him to more immediate concerns. He followed the thread of his previous thoughts back to their source and shook his head at himself, incredulous. He should have been happy for Cloud and Tifa, instead of turning into a moping mess. He made such a bad older brother.

He made such a bad everything, he thought with a sigh. And still, people forgave him. People sought him out. Even now, Sephiroth stood by his side, waiting in silence.

How strange to be in this situation. Once upon a time, he would have given anything for a glance from his hero. Then Nibelheim had burned, and any word that man had deigned to bestow upon him had become a symbol of his madness. That Sephiroth had been obsessed with the puny human daring to rise against him, when the sane one would never have given him the time of day. That was fact.

Or he had thought it was, anyway.

“I have no idea what you see in me,” he confessed, at a loss. “Any of you.”

His Tifa, Denzel, both Aeriths, Cloud, every single one of his old friends… now Sephiroth. There was nothing special about him. He was an imposter crippled by regrets and self-doubt.

Dust crunched under Sephiroth’s boots as he shifted closer. Rain turned and found himself the focus of his gently glowing eyes. Sephiroth’s lips were curled with something like amusement… or fondness? He couldn’t tell, and it made his heart give a strange lurch in his chest.

“I think it’s time you accept that if there are so many people caring about you, Cloud, it can only mean that we are right and you are wrong.”

His hand lifted. Rain flinched back then stopped, poised on the verge of some flight instinct he didn’t understand.

Sephiroth froze. His fingers curled in on themselves. He let his hand drop.

Rain searched his face for a sign he had offended, but there was nothing there. There was no trace of his previous smile, either. Sephiroth nodded to himself.

“My apologies. I’ll see you tomorrow, Cloud.”

Rain watched him go, bewildered, with the sinking feeling he had just given an answer to a question he hadn’t known was being asked.


	20. Chapter 19

Sunrise found the camp quiet and still. Hundreds of tents littered the plain, but only the wind whistled softly between the tarps and flapped open pieces of fabric. The blankets, the food, everything easy to pack had disappeared.

First Class was long gone, a vast array of mismatched vehicles tracing their way north in a cloud of dust.

Sephiroth sat atop the partially open roof of a jeep, watching the field ahead and the troops behind. The driver kept his eyes straight ahead; he had quickly learned not to worry about his commander’s precarious position. Sephiroth’s feet were propped on the passenger seat, bracketing Genesis’ shoulders. Radio in hand, his friend peered through the windshield and distributed orders as necessary. Zack rode in another car and led their second column. The Highwind lumbered along above their heads.

A bike with two passengers surged before the jeep, crossing their path left to right. Cloud glanced back at them from behind his shades. Valentine clung to his waist, a pair of binoculars in his flesh hand.

“Everyone slow down,” Genesis said in his radio, nodding to their driver. “Get to 30 mph.”

As the troops braked, one lone vehicle detached from the mass. Sephiroth heard the roar of Cloud’s engine as he shot forward in the stretch of desolate wildlands still separating them from the city walls. Dawn drew long shadows and pit traps behind each rock, each outcrop and ledge, but Cloud navigated the terrain with enviable grace.

They stopped about a mile out. A few moments later, Valentine’s clawed hand rose to the sky, reflecting golden rays of light in every direction. The tune of the Highwind’s rumble changed as the massive airship moved forward and turned to present its flank to Midgar. The machine gun they had loaded on board barely fit on the open lower deck, but it whined and rained its deadly seeds in front of the bike.

The ground blew up.

As the Highwind followed the city line, it triggered the ring of buried explosives that would have decimated their ranks, opening the way in a continuous geyser of dirt and rocks. The troops cheered.

The noise was deafening enough that Sephiroth didn’t hear the first gunshots until he realized Cloud was racing back to them, Valentine awkwardly turned on the saddle to aim his rifle behind them.

“Snipers!” he snapped at Genesis.

“First line artillery, prepare to return fire,” he relayed dutifully.

Hidden Deepground troops had shed their camouflage behind the mines and aimed at their two scouts. Troopers led cover fire until Cloud crossed paths with Sephiroth and Genesis’ jeep.

As soon as he cleared their back bumper, Cloud braked, planted a foot on the ground and executed a tight turn, Valentine’s coat highlighting the dramatic effect of the manoeuvre. As the bike drew parallel with them, the ex-Turk jumped next to Sephiroth. He stood tall on the car roof and proceeded to decimate the shooters.

They were coming up to the enemy line. An impact slammed into the bulletproof windshield, then another. In one smooth motion, Sephiroth stood up on the back of Genesis’ seat, slid a foot to the top of the windscreen, drew Masamune and intercepted the bullet that would have taken one of their front tires off. To the driver’s credit, the car barely swerved.

Genesis glared when his coat’s hemline nearly hit him in the face, but otherwise made no motion to stop him as he bounded down to meet the fight head on. One of them had to stay and direct the troops. It was selfish of Sephiroth to saddle him with the duty, no doubt, but his frustration of the past few days demanded an outlet.

The Deepground soldiers had hoped to take advantage of the mines’ damages. Deprived of this leverage, they were quickly overrun. Still they didn’t flee, staying in formation and attacking with single-minded determination. Sephiroth demolished one group after another, moving nearly too fast for the eye to see.

Per Genesis’ orders, their column was moving straight through the battlefield; they didn’t have much time to lose with the small fry. As a result, Sephiroth found himself jumping on and off vehicles, ducking to attack and then moving back too late for his opponents to avoid an incoming bumper.

In his peripheral vision, he was aware of Cloud’s bike weaving through the chaos, never straying far from him. He drove one-handed, one of his swords parrying gunshots and cutting through enemies with the ease of long habit.

A Deepground grunt managed to latch onto the door of a truck’s cab. He shot the driver in the head before he could reach for his weapon and hauled himself through the window. The co-driver threw himself at him to prevent him from taking control of the vehicle. In their struggle, the truck veered and teetered like a drunken chocobo. The cars following behind tried to get out of the way, but they didn’t have much room to manoeuvre in the heart of the column. If it toppled, the pileup would be catastrophic.

Sephiroth saw all this from the top of a transport further west. He eyed the hundred feet separating him from the scene, calculating, then searched around. He turned Masamune to catch the early morning sun, shining its rays straight through a pair of shades. Cloud looked up, frowning. One gesture of the chin and, though Sephiroth saw his lips thin, he came closer. Sephiroth stepped off the roof, catching himself with one hand to the transport’s side. Cloud sidled up to him so neatly he only had to let himself drop in the backseat.

They jetted through the spaces in the vehicle lines and made it to the truck just as the Deepground soldier raised a grenade. Sephiroth leaped to the door and snatched it out of his grip.

It was already unpinned.

The thought had barely crossed his mind before it was plucked from his hand too. Cloud reared back and managed an impressive throw. It soared in the sky where it exploded harmlessly. Sephiroth only caught it from the corner of his eye, as the trooper left in the cabin had finally managed to jam a knife in his opponent’s throat and he had to help him stabilize the truck during his death throes.

Sephiroth opened the cabin door and threw the corpse out. Cloud avoided it with grace, already moving off. The soldier awkwardly moved around his colleague’s body to claim the driver seat. Only when he addressed him a grateful smile and a shaky salute did Sephiroth nod, close the door and hoist himself on the truck’s roof.

By now, they had cleared the first line of defence and neared Midgar’s walls. The Highwind was off to the east, opening the way for Angeal’s men. Sephiroth jumped from vehicle to vehicle to return to the head of the column. He reached it just as their scouts blew the massive doors wide open.

There was no more resistance as they streaked through into the city proper. They stopped there, their rearguard disembarking and fanning out. They would seize control of the area and set up a safe outpost.

Sephiroth slid to the ground. He heard Cloud’s bike come to a purring stop by his side. They stared up, at the places where they should have been able to see the railway and highway leading above Plate. Curtains of grey sunlight peeked through the two gaping holes. The rails and the road had collapsed on the houses underneath. Cut wires and melted beams still swung slowly hundreds of feet above the wreckage.

Cloud sighed.

“It’s nothing unexpected,” Sephiroth said, although the amount of destruction was sobering.

“It’s déjà vu all over again,” Cloud muttered.

He threw him a curious look.

“Did you fail to mention your involvement in another invasion of the city?”

“Well… it can’t be called an invasion when you’re heading an army of, like. Six.”

He shrugged. Sephiroth shook his head in bemusement.

He turned to Genesis and Valentine who had come up behind them.

“We’ll be going,” he said to his friend.

Genesis nodded. Then, in an uncharacteristic bout of affection, he stepped forward to hug him. It only lasted a split second, barely long enough for Sephiroth to tense in surprise.

“Take care,” he said, and the weight behind the words made them more than the throwaway farewell they could have been.

Sephiroth inclined his head, genuinely moved.

Turning to Cloud, Genesis added:

“You’ll have his back like you had mine. We are all a little broken inside, and certainly I’ve got my share. But if your personal madness costs Sephiroth his life today, I will see to it that you join him to the grave.”

Sephiroth raised incredulous eyebrows, but Cloud’s sole reaction was a sombre nod.

“I wouldn’t fight you.”

Genesis nodded back and returned to his car.

“What was that about?” Sephiroth frowned.

Cloud shrugged without answering. As he was about to press, Vincent butted in softly:

“It is a heavy burden to keep on living when your weakness has cost others their lives.”

He and Cloud shared a look of perfect understanding.

It churned Sephiroth’s stomach. He couldn’t fathom willingly wilting away under such a weight. Guilt for having made a mistake, he could grasp. But guilt for failing to achieve something? Sephiroth knew and fully accepted his limits. He was a warrior, not a saviour. He took lives, he didn’t preserve them. When Genesis had lost his mind, he had measured his responsibilities and refused to shoulder the blame. The accidental injury he had caused Genesis may have been the trigger to his degeneration, but something else would have taken that role sooner or later.

He snatched Cloud’s arm, startling him into looking back at him. His seething green eyes met his and held them captive.

“If I die today, it will be by my own weakness. Do not cheapen my existence by summing it up to those of your acts you aim or fail to aim at me. You once told me my future was my own, Cloud Strife. I am writing it. You do not even get to touch the pen.”

Both men were staring at him. Whatever voice Vincent heard behind his words, he kept to himself, but he turned abruptly away. Cloud looked down, clearing his throat.

“Yeah… I… um… yeah…”

He set a timid hand on his wrist.

“How about you just… don’t die?” he suggested meekly.

Satisfied with his embarrassment, Sephiroth scoffed and strode past him.

 

* * *

 

A soldier rushed to take Rain’s bike out of his hands. He let go and followed after Sephiroth on autopilot.

He felt numb. At the same time, his heart beat far too loudly in his ears.

Whatever Sephiroth said, guilt wouldn’t be extinguished so easily. It was a foe too personal, too raw and intimate to be brushed away by someone else’s convictions; otherwise, his friends’ love and kindness would maybe have long ago soothed his heart.

And yet, Sephiroth’s words had ignited something inside him. Once again this man had effortlessly touched him, and though he didn’t understand the gentle warmth burning in his chest, he revelled in it all the same, unable not to marvel at it.

By the time he caught up to Sephiroth, he had already settled himself on the passenger seat of the transport waiting for them. He didn’t look at Rain when he took the wheel, but it didn’t prevent the warmth from kicking up a notch at the notion that he was deliberately letting him drive. The vehicle lurched when Vincent embarked in the back, taking his seat next to a row of SOLDIERs. Sephiroth unhooked the car radio.

“Silver Elite unit,” he said in the device, “prepare for departure.”

Rain’s lips twitched.

The name of the units had been Cloud’s idea. He had claimed that they would be easy to remember for most members of First Class and Genesis had been predictably quick to laud the proposition. Zack, flustered, had tried to argue against it, but Sephiroth had accepted the logic of it with perfect indifference. A desperate Zack had tried to argue that Rain should have a vote too, despite not being a unit leader. But the puppy dog eyes had had little effect this time: Rain had struggled to maintain his poker face as he shrugged and claimed the idea seemed reasonable to him. It had then been followed by a call to Angeal to inform him of the decision taken in his absence. As the master had proceeded to react in a way very similar to his student, Rain had accepted a hidden fist bump from Cloud.

As a result, their column split into two units: Sephiroth’s Silver Elite and Genesis’ Study Group. Zack’s men, who had entered through the next nearby gate, were Red Leather and Fair. The Study Group and Red Leather units were to junction together under Genesis’ orders, crushing the enemies on their way. From there, they would spread east through the slums to meet with Angeal and Lazard’s Keepers of Honour and retake the entire below Plate Midgar.

The Silver Elite and Fair units, however, were to meet directly at the Shinra tower.

Rain started the car and led the way forward. The rest of the unit was quick to form around them. They headed out, driving further into the shadows under the Plate.

For a moment, all was eerily calm. There wasn’t a single soul in the streets. The only sound they could hear was the echo of the engines reverberated to them from the grim building fronts.

Suddenly, around a corner, a barricade stood in their way. The cars managed to stop in good order, but before anything could be done, a hail of gunfire rained on them from above.

Deepground airborne troops soared overhead, covered by more snipers in the nearby buildings. However they had expected a similar tactic, and only the sturdiest vehicles had been picked to come this far into the city. Despite the racket and the cobwebs forming on the windshields and windows, they stayed safe.

Two men in protective gear jumped out of transports, shouldered rocket launchers and blew the barricade to smithereens. The cars started on their way again, charging through the flaming debris. Taken aback, the jet packs veered to try and head them off, only to be plucked from the sky by their return fire. Rain huffed in annoyance at the cracks in the glass now hindering his field of vision.

An hour and a few more ambushes later, they reached the behemoth-like foot of the tower. The Fair unit was already there.

Zack saluted them with a jaunty wave when Rain, Sephiroth and Vincent joined him.

“Glad you three could make it!”

“Everything alright?” Sephiroth asked.

“Yeah. It’s even been strangely quiet since we got here, to be honest. Like they think we’re going for a dead end, so it’s not worth it anymore to worry about us?”

“Or they want us to think precisely this. Remember, they have no reason to suspect we know their base of operations is Reactor Zero.”

“Well yeah, that’s true… but still. You sure about that hidden door, buddy?”

Rain shrugged in answer.

“Even if I’m wrong, a rocket should make a nice new entrance.”

“Hah!” Zack laughed. “Top-grade architectural feat there. Let’s go, then.”

He waved at someone. Rain followed his gaze and saw a medic unit huddled inside a truck. Aerith waved back. She was pale but her smile didn’t waver. Rain looked around and spotted Cloud, Tifa and Nanaki standing with troopers around the vehicle. Cloud’s eyes were already on him. Rain hoped his look expressed everything he had not known how to say. He suspected it fell short, but Cloud’s watery smile told him it was more than enough. He nodded, his heart in his throat.

Turning, he led the way in.

In another life, Meteor’s Fall had collapsed a good part of Shinra HQ on itself. Deepground had been stuck underneath, unable to get out, prisoners for three years in their own private hell. It had hardened them, fed their hate of the surfacers to the point where they became little more than rabid dogs. Very few had survived their uprising. They hadn’t been able to afford to let many live.

But Rain still remembered how it had started. People had been investigating the ruins of the tower, trying to piece together all the parts of the huge machinery that had held the world under its heel for so long. There had been a TV report, something about a sealed door located deep at the foot of the building. The investigation team had opened it, then disappeared in Shinra’s bowels. No one had heard from them again. A few weeks later, Deepground had begun their attack on the world.

Rain had meant to look into the disappearances, wary of anything that had Shinra’s mark all over it, but by the time he was back on the continent from a delivery, it was already coming to a head. It did mean, however, that he was well informed.

Huge pillars dotted the landscape around the foot of the tower, meant more to intimidate than to support the structure. They also served to obscure anything behind them, and with the city lights all turned off, it was very dark under there. Zack had a few cars turn around to shine their headlights in. It awoke a few monsters which he and Sephiroth made short work of.

Meanwhile, Rain was doggedly picking his way through rubble and garbage. Shinra had gone far to ensure the area looked devoid of interest. Even scavengers would find nothing of worth here.

He stopped at the top of a boulder and grunted in satisfaction. A barely noticeable dirt road led between the pillars and straight to the wall.

He jumped to the ground and hurried down the path, absentmindedly cleaving an aggressive Cripshay in two. The rest had the good sense to scatter away. A heavy stone slab rested against the wall. Rain pushed it out of the way. The door was of regular size, its scuffed metal blending well with the concrete.

Zack whistled.

“Wow, okay. Not doubting you anymore, man.”

“Most of their supplies come from the tower,” he said. “But the ‘subjects’ that aren’t from the army have to enter somewhere.”

Somewhere out of the way, where no one would notice or care that these people weren’t here of their own free will. Sephiroth’s hand landed on his shoulder. It squeezed carefully. He realized then that his grip was too tight around Remus’ hilt. He forced himself to unclench, released a weary sigh and nodded.

The cars circled around and parked along the dirt road while they pried the door open. Sephiroth, Rain and Vincent entered first, Zack following after with multiple SOLDIER squads.

It didn’t take long for their intrusion to be noticed. The grey, too clean corridors soon echoed with gunshots, shouted orders and the clang of blades.

“Spread out, First Class!” Zack yelled in the radio. “Let’s clean out this level!”

Rain had lost Sephiroth in the fray. He caught sight of the hem of a black coat swishing by in a nearby corridor and started running after him, but slid to a stop in front of a closed door.

“Hm.”

He made short work of the locking mechanism. The door swished open and he was immediately greeted by gunfire. He ducked to the side, but not before spotting a vast silo-like space. The floor dropped away and a thin catwalk crossed the void to a cylindrical structure in the centre.

“Sephiroth,” he called.

Bless the man’s hearing. He appeared out of nowhere a few seconds later, Vincent in his wake. Rain tilted his head to the empty room. Sephiroth sneaked a look, gracefully swivelling out of the way of more bullets.

“An elevator?” he guessed.

“Going down. That’s our clue.”

“The shooters?”

Rain poked his head through the door for a moment.

“Airborne.”

He shared a look with Vincent and let him take his place near the door. A few gunshots later, the way was clear. They crossed the catwalk to a huge circular platform.

“We’ve found the way down, Zack,” Rain said in his radio.

“You got it,” came the crackling answer. “See you on the other side, guys!”

Vincent pushed a button, starting the platform’s descent.

“This is hardly the most discreet way of making an entrance,” Sephiroth said, eyeing the elevator shaft as it passed around them. It was a good forty meters across.

Rain rolled his eyes.

“That’s Shinra for you. What do they hope to get down with this thing, a truck? It wouldn’t pass through the door.”

Sephiroth snorted in agreement.

“If this is the only way in, they’ll be expecting us. We’d better be prepared.”

 

* * *

 

If the door at the top of the elevator was man-sized, it was not so for the entrance to Deepground’s realm.

Its peek appeared without warning at the edge of the platform and rose above their heads as they continued their way down… and down… and down…

“… Wow,” was all Cloud said when they finally lurched to a stop in front of a ridiculously tall gate. Plumes of steam billowed from the heavy locking mechanism as it began its ponderous swivel.

“Feeling smaller than usual, Cloud?” Sephiroth couldn’t resist teasing.

The man threw a baleful glare his way.

“Feeling like I’m the last person who can be accused of overcompensating, for once,” he retorted.

Sephiroth chuckled. The lock retreated inside its housing and the door slowly slid aside, revealing… another door. Cloud’s shoulders sagged under the strength of his sigh and Sephiroth had to hold back a laugh. When that panel started moving, finally, harsh electrical light filtered through to them. They trekked forward, weapons in hand.

Their footsteps echoed on the metal platform. It was all Sephiroth could see of Deepground’s den: metal. A dim, cold artificial light bathed it, in more places than not glowing a sickly green. They were far above the ground, as the entire complex appeared to be a gigantic cavern. Catwalks, stairwells, huge pillars and the occasional partition had been set up to create a veritable maze. But the confusing mess parted in front of the elevator, granting them a stunning view of the central masterpiece of the place: the Mako Reactor Zero.

Right in front of the panorama, their welcoming committee awaited.

Despite his white hair, Weiss the Immaculate couldn’t have been older than Zack, seventeen years old at most. Yet Sephiroth remembered his own destructive potential at that age, and it was as much a warning not to underestimate the young man as the merciless, cold eyes that dissected them from afar, already searching for any trace of a weakness. There was rage in him, Sephiroth could tell, made more dangerous by how tightly leashed it was.

He wasn’t alone, either. Dozens of Deepground troops stood motionless on catwalks all around them, guns trained on them.

For a moment, all stayed silent. Weiss didn’t bother with pleasantries or threats. In fact, he didn’t say a word.

Sephiroth exchanged a glance with Cloud.

Without warning, the room exploded into action. The echoing clicks of multiple safeties being released; Masamune whistling through the air, its strikes leaving luminous afterimages as it cut through metal like butter; the shriek of steel and men alike as entire platforms toppled into the void below; Weiss flying straight at Sephiroth only to be intercepted by Cloud in a clang of warring blades.

There was no turning back now.

 

* * *

 

Unseen and unheeded, Vincent slid from one shadow to the next. The chaos around the gate worked in his favour as he hooked his clawed hand on a railing, swung around it and dropped soundlessly on the catwalk below.

_“Leave us to deal with whatever awaits,”_ Sephiroth had said. _“Your goal is to find President Shinra. If you get an opportunity to take him hostage, do so. Otherwise, if he is too well guarded, come back to guide us.”_

For the son of Lucrecia, Vincent would obey. The President was a vicious parasite whose greed had poisoned his entire company, a man who had indiscriminately supported even the most heinous experiments in the hope that it would grant him just a little more power than he already had. As the hand and the funds behind Hojo, he was nearly as responsible as the good doctor himself for everything that had transpired in Nibelheim. For Lucrecia’s death.

But if her son said he must live, he would. At the very least until he reached the end of his usefulness.

For the most part Deepground was quiet. The occasional squad would run toward the gate, no doubt to offer help against Cloud and Sephiroth, but the majority of the troops were on the surface. Despite the confusing layout of the place and the lack of good hiding spots on the suspended walkways, Vincent could avoid enemies without trouble, and even managed to pick off a few stragglers without their comrades being none the wiser.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that the men he crossed paths with all came from the same direction. Nodding in satisfaction, he followed the trail.

He knew instantaneously when he got in earshot.

“What is that whelp _doing_?” Shinra was blustering, his already grating voice made all the more insufferable by how whiny it was becoming. “You assured me your precious first Tsviet was more than enough to take care of even Sephiroth!”

Vincent had to get closer to hear the answer, pronounced in the genderless monotone of what could only be a Restrictor.

“… but to fight alone against two…” they were saying.

“That’s why we’re sending away all those soldiers that should be guarding _me_ , aren’t we?” Shinra interrupted.

Vincent sidled around a pillar. The President and the last Restrictor stood behind a few squads of blank-faced Deepground troops. About a dozen men and women in white coats huddled in the back of the scene, at least until Shinra whirled and barked at them to “make yourself useful and find a solution, you damn fools!” Then they jumped to their feet and scattered around monitors like so many sparrows.

Vincent circled the spot, trying to find a route that would allow him to get close to Shinra. He only needed to drop on the man and point his gun at him. Then, if Rain’s intel stayed as reliable as it had been until now, the Restrictor would back off to preserve their master’s life, and with them, it would be all of Deepground on the verge of laying down their arms.

But he could see no way to accomplish this without having to fight his way through. He would have to go back for Sephiroth and Rain, after all.

“There! Did you see that?” Shinra squeaked suddenly, and Vincent froze.

A low murmur of the Restrictor trying to reassure him.

“I know what I saw!” Shinra exploded. “A shadow! Moving! Someone got through your useless protection! This place is driving me crazy. Enough! Get me out of here right now!”

Swearing in his head, Vincent backed away as fast as he could go. Whether the man had actually seen him or his paranoia was acting up, the result was the same.

It didn’t matter, he told himself. Sephiroth and Rain were blocking the only way out.

Then there was the purr of an engine from behind him.

His luck was not holding out today.

 

* * *

 

Rain and Sephiroth had switched places a few times by now, alternating fighting Weiss and keeping the reinforcements at bay.

It was as always slightly distressing to Rain to note how well they worked together, but there was little time to muse on it. Sephiroth counted on him to have his back and he was not going to let him take a bullet because he was distracted.

Because he was the furthest from the gate, he was the first to hear it. Then he saw it: a strange flying contraption, jetpack-like, but bigger. It held up two people, he realised as it came closer; and the burnt red suit of one of them was unfortunately familiar.

He made to back off, not liking where this was going, but his opponents chose that moment to surge forward and he had to push back or risk letting them break through. President Shinra and his black-robed protector passed overhead, the despicable man cackling his delight.

“Kill them, Weiss!” he yelled at the Tsviet. “Do not disappoint me like your brother. I want them dead! Don’t let them come after me!”

Rain couldn’t turn to watch Weiss’ reaction as a fresh batch of enemies ran down the stairs toward him, no doubt the last of Shinra’s guard detail relieved from their function. The song of blades meeting and Sephiroth’s grunt at least told him he was obeying, preventing Sephiroth from intervening himself.

Rain was desperately searching for a way to turn the situation around before the fool disappeared when a gunshot rang.

Heart giving a hopeful twinge, he glanced over his shoulder just long enough to see the jetpack sputter and fail. Shinra let out a shriek, but they had already passed the gate and been on their way down. They landed on the platform without damage and the Restrictor lost no time activating the elevator.

Vincent surged out of nowhere and bolted after them, but it was already too late.

He returned a few moments later, grim-faced, to help him against the troops who, more than ever, fought without any regard for their own lives, throwing themselves with single-minded determination at the intruders. It made Rain sick.

“Cloud!” he heard, and the tone of voice was enough to make him duck away, alarmed.

At first he saw nothing to justify the call. Sephiroth appeared to hold his own well enough against Weiss, although neither of them had managed to draw first blood yet. But then the duellists changed positions, and he saw Weiss’ face.

His blood ran cold.

“Weiss!” he yelled. He had to stop and grunt as he blocked the downward strike of a swordsman and tripped him away. “I’m the one who killed your brother!”

It was a lie. Genesis had been the one to deliver Nero’s finishing blow, but they were well past the point of bothering with semantics.

Weiss froze. For a moment he stood immobile, pale eyes riveted on Rain, nostrils flaring with more than adrenaline.

“I killed Nero!” Rain said again.

“No,” he finally growled, the very first words he pronounced. “You didn’t. _He_ did.”

He twirled his dual pistol swords. His body began to glow. With a great cry, he unleashed a shockwave that toppled everyone around to the ground. Sephiroth, who had been standing the closest to him, was sent flying off the platform.

“Sephiroth!”

By the time Rain fought back an unwelcome and unexpected burst of panic by remembering that there was little chance of the man dying so easily, Weiss was gone. He struggled to his feet and fended off the soldiers doing the same around him.

Vincent and him were finally getting rid of their last opponents when Sephiroth hoisted himself back to their level, thin-lipped in something that looked a lot like offense. It was easy for Rain to ignore the knot that unwound in his chest, because at that moment, an unholy racket reached them from the elevator shaft.

They ran to the gate. Sephiroth reached it first and slid to a stop, forcing Rain to collide with his extended arm. A huge slab of steel struck down in a cloud of dust in front of them, shaking the ground. Heart sinking, Rain recognized it as a fragment of the elevator platform. Its borders had been neatly cut off by very sharp blades.

“He’s out of control,” he whispered.

“Going after the President?”

“Definitely.”

“Then let’s get to him first.”

Bounding up the shaft took them much more time than Rain would have liked.

“My apologies,” Vincent grunted, jumping off an outcropping beam. “I should have stopped Shinra from fleeing.”

“I know you did your best, Vincent,” Rain panted, catching him and swinging him higher. He dislodged Remulus from the wall and launched himself after him, slapping his hand into Sephiroth’s for a boost. “He’s insane, anyway. Launching himself straight at the war he started.”

“My guess is he’s aiming for the top floor,” Sephiroth said, pushing himself off with so much strength he looked like he was flying more than jumping. Rain found himself staring at his powerful thighs and blinked, taken aback.

“And the helicopter pad,” he groaned in realisation.

Sephiroth grunted in agreement.

 They found the platform blocking their way at the top, but the triangular hole cut in it was just as good as an invitation. They jumped through, startling a First Class squad that had been peering down with wary faces.

“Sir!” the men said in unison, snapping a salute as soon as they recognized Sephiroth.

“Which way?”

They pointed west without a word. They bolted through the passageways.

“Zack?” Sephiroth said in his radio.

A burst of static, then their friend’s voice:

“Hey, you’re back in range! What’s up? You already—”

He cut himself off with a yelp. More static exploded on the link.

“Was that… President Shinra?” he said in complete bewilderment.

“Where are you?”

“Upper floors, moving toward Plate level. Ask anyone to show you the elevators.”

“Noted. If you see a white-haired teenager running through, intercept.”

“Shhhit,” was Zack’s heartfelt answer. “You hear that, First Class? Anyone see our last Tsviet, stop him at all costs! I’m going after the President!”

They came out in one of the largest rooms on the floor. Rain remembered passing through here earlier. The entire floor must have been secured, because people were already bustling around a makeshift hospital, setting up beds and bandaging the first injured. He caught a glimpse of Aerith amidst the bustle, looking at them with wide eyes.

“Rain!”

Whirling around, he spotted Cloud signalling him down a branching corridor. He flew by with a nod of thanks.

 

* * *

 

Way too many corridors, elevators and stairwells followed. The place was a confusing mess that made no architectural sense. At the third elevator they found, Sephiroth heard Cloud give a groan of despair. Still they forged on.

They found two SOLDIER squads crumpled along the way, presumably mowed down in their attempt to obey Zack. At least they would have slowed Weiss down. All they could do was radio in the men’s positions to the medics and hope they would find more than dead bodies on arrival.

When they finally crossed above Plate and made it to the official company’s lobby floor, a trooper saluted them.

“Sirs!” he said over the sounds of battle in the background. “This is the floor we are currently securing. You won’t find any backup above, except for First Class Fair. His current position is unknown.”

“Noted, sergeant,” Sephiroth acknowledged.

“Also, the elevators are down.”

“The gods exist,” Cloud sighed in relief.

“You prefer the stairs?” Vincent asked, doubtful.

“I know these stairs. I have no reason to doubt their value. These stairs and I have had a long and fruitful relationship.”

“And they give no one motion sickness,” Sephiroth prodded, smirking, as he led the way to the stairwell.

Cloud blinked. To Sephiroth’s delight, a faint blush appeared on his cheeks. He cut his eyes away and didn’t answer.

All banter aside, from the smoke exiting the closed elevator doors, Sephiroth assumed they had been sabotaged by Deepground in order to slow down their progress. This was mixed good news, as it had to have happened before the President made it here. He would be taking the stairs too, which would slow him down, but also give Weiss a chance to catch up.

Whether they were now aware that their last Tsviet was hot on their trail, the Restrictor had obviously given orders to cover Shinra’s retreat. They discovered Deepground bodies flung along the walls of the staircase like so many rag dolls. Sephiroth noticed with interest that there was less blood than when they had found the SOLDIERs below. Most were probably only unconscious.

They had to stop on Floor 34. The stairs above had collapsed to their level in one massive landslide. There was not even any jumping over it, and cutting a passage open would have risked the structural integrity of the entire shaft.

“Looks like the stairs have betrayed you,” Vincent commented.

Cloud rolled his eyes.

“Shut up. The stairs are awesome.”

As proof, he pushed open the outer door. More Deepground troops lay in a heap on the landing, weapons knocked out of their hands.

They crept into the level proper, hoping to find their target close. It was a bureaucratic space, filled with printing machines and meeting rooms. All was strangely quiet.

“What are you doing?” a voice yelled suddenly. “You must obey me! Don’t you dare…!”

They rushed in that direction, bursting in a large office room filled with empty cubicles. Sephiroth caught a glimpse of unruly white hair and flew forward, nearly tripping over a… cat? Brushing it off, he intercepted the strike that would have taken off—he dared a glance over his shoulder—Rufus Shinra’s head.

The son of the President looked shaken, but as usual, he was quick to recover.

“Sephiroth. Thank you for your assistance. I did hope to meet you…”

He was cut off by Vincent’s shooting, then Cloud running in to provide backup. Weiss evaded or blocked all attacks. He jumped backward, still coiled for action, seething.

“Out of my way,” he growled. “Shinra took away my family. It’s only fair I annihilate his.”

“If you think President Shinra cares about anyone but himself, you are sorely mistaken,” Sephiroth shot back. “Did he give his son _any_ influence over Deepground at all?”

Weiss paused to mull over this.

“Of course not,” Rufus scoffed. “Deepground is his precious toy. I wasn’t even aware of its existence before his dramatic unveiling.”

Weiss gritted his teeth. Sephiroth recognized the signs, but as before, was too close to avoid it. The shockwave washed over him and it was all he could do to brace himself and not let himself be swept away.

There was a cut-off curse as Cloud wasn’t so lucky, caught mid-stride and sent flying with various partition screens. Other voices merged with his in cries of alarm, betraying the presence of employees hiding behind their desks. Sephiroth only glanced away for a split second, but when he turned back a big chunk of ceiling was collapsing to the floor and Weiss was nowhere to be seen.

Sighing, he made to follow.

“Wait, Sephiroth,” Rufus said, pushing himself off the floor and brushing various office paraphernalia from his white jacket. “I need to talk to you. When my father is gone, I’ll be your best chance to recover control of the company. You have the military with you, of course, so I’m willing to strike a bargain—”

Typical Shinra. At least Lazard had managed to become someone halfway decent despite that rotten DNA.

“I need protection!” Rufus insisted when he ignored him and kept moving toward the hole in the ceiling. “Deepground are all over the tower, they’ll be coming to investigate this racket—”

“Reeve?”

Sephiroth stopped. That had been Cloud’s voice, although tinted with disbelief. He looked around, but though Vincent had already joined him, he couldn’t see the time traveller anywhere.

“Cloud?”

A blond head popped comically from a mound of privacy screens. Cloud stood up, brushing away the dividers. He was helping another man to his feet.

About thirty, black-haired, clad in a sharp dark-blue suit, the man looked rather alarmed to be the recipient of Cloud’s earnest attention. Sephiroth recognized him as Reeve Tuesti, the head of the Urban Development department. Rather incongruously, he was clutching a limp cat toy to his chest. Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed. Didn’t he last see that cat launching itself at Weiss?

Cloud turned to him, grave.

“This is Reeve Tuesti. We’ll need him. He can’t die.”

Well.

Reeve was gaping. Rufus had arched a single, sceptical eyebrow. Other employees poked their heads around their hiding spots in curiosity.

“What do you propose?” Sephiroth questioned, so unruffled by the request that Rufus’ contempt changed to astonishment.

“Sephiroth,” he sputtered. “Tuesti is just a desk jockey. _I_ should be—”

“I’ll stay here. You keep after Weiss—”

“No,” Vincent protested, which was just as well because it prevented Sephiroth from doing so himself. “I stay. You go.”

Cloud blinked.

“You sure?”

“Yes.” He cocked his rifle. “Go. We’ll be fine.”

Cloud’s lips curled up.

“Thanks. I’ll be counting on you then.”

Sephiroth launched himself to the next level, hearing Cloud’s footsteps and Rufus’ last protests follow after him.

 

* * *

 

Zack huffed, tired and frustrated.

Damn these stairs, seriously.

He bent over his knees to catch his breath. He had lost sight of the President and the Restrictor half a dozen floors ago. He wasn’t even sure anymore that he was on their trail. For all he knew, they had stopped way before and he was chasing shadows. What level was he even at? He had lost count. He squinted at the letters on the wall. Floor 49.

Floor 49?

Hey! The SOLDIER Floor!

He perked up. Maybe it was foolish… but he didn’t even know where he was going anymore. He could just check the place for clues. Yeah, clues! It would only take a few minutes.

He cautiously pushed the door open. When no gunshots greeted him, he sidled inside, sword in hand.

The lounge area was deserted. In the dim emergency lights, the familiar room looked cold and forbidding.

Maybe this was a mistake. What was he hoping to find here, anyway? There was no sign of the President passing through. Shoulders heaving in a sigh, he was turning back to the stairwell when the door slammed closed.

He jumped back, sword raised, before he even saw the silhouette standing between him and the exit. Then he blinked, hardly daring to believe his eyes.

“Kunsel…?”

His face split in a wide grin.

“Kunsel! Man, I was looking for you! I’m so happy to see you!”

He made to step up to him, arms already open for a hug.

The tip of a sword appeared in front on him. He stopped cold.

It was Kunsel alright. He was wearing a full uniform, including the helmet, but that was per Kunsel’s habit and Zack had known the man too long not to recognize him on sight. There was something, though… Beneath the visor, his Mako eyes glowed too strongly in the half-light. Kunsel’s had never been so bright.

And that uniform was a Deepground one.

Zack’s arms sunk with his stomach.

“Oh no, man,” he whispered, heartbroken. “Don’t tell me they got you.”

Kunsel didn’t answer. His face remained blank, as expressionless as any Deepground grunt. He swung his sword and attacked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are some good news: only two more chapters left!; one of them is already written; and I’ll want to get them up pretty close to each other, so next time I update, we’ll be super close to the end!  
> Also, I'm on [Tumblr](http://yourdragonisinanothercastle.tumblr.com/) if that's your thing.


	21. Chapter 20

For the past twenty minutes, Rufus Shinra had been engaging one Reeve Tuesti in amiable small talk while gunshots rang above them.

Of course, it was less amiable than passive-aggressive, and less small talk than verbal sparring. Rufus was alternatively trying to fish out what made Tuesti so special, and making covert overtures for alliances. He wasn’t having much success, as Tuesti seemed as dumbfounded as him over their current situation and not versed enough in doublespeak and general political unpleasantness to see the offers for what they were.

Vincent held back a sigh as he ducked behind a desk and reloaded. Other Shinra employees had huddled at the back of the large office room, far away from the door to the stairs from which Deepground units periodically attempted to rush in and overrun their sniper guardian. Rufus had made it a point to not back away from the fight, thus allowing Vincent to eavesdrop on the labyrinthine conversation whether he wanted to or not.

A series of thumps and cut-off screams suddenly reached them from the corridor. It at least made Rufus shut up. In the silence that followed, Vincent strained himself trying to hear anything from his next opponents.

Instead, calm footsteps approached the room. Four pairs of them, near inaudible.

Vincent sneaked a look between furniture. His hunch was confirmed when he saw four dark suits appear in the doorway.

“Veld,” he said, standing up.

The leader of the Turks appraised the bodies gathered at the entrance and nodded with something like approval.

“Vincent.”

He didn’t seem surprised to find him, which was par for the course. The one named Tseng was with him, and two Turks Vincent didn’t recognize. Veld and Tseng picked their way through the room while the others guarded the way in.

And the way out, Vincent thought with a spark of suspicion.

“Can I help you?” he asked pointedly.

Nobody ever knew what Turks were really up to, but what were they doing so far ahead of First Class troops?

“We heard you had found someone of interest to us.”

There was a shuffle, then, and Rufus stood up. He buttoned his jacket with unhurried motions, but Vincent noticed he had paled a shade.

“Am I to assume that someone would be me?” he questioned with remarkable composure.

“Mr. Shinra. How good of you to show yourself.”

Tseng drew his gun and aimed it at the young man.

“Hold on,” Vincent butted in. “What’s going on?”

“One way or another, the Shinra dynasty will lose its power today,” Veld said. “It has done enough damage. The people will no longer trust it. If the company is to survive, it is time to replace the old with the new.”

Rufus closed his eyes, snorting.

“To think, in other circumstances our positions would have been reversed. You Turks were well on the path to disgrace. If Deepground hadn’t risen, you would be the obsolete ones today.”

“Deepground or not, we were cast aside all the same.”

“But you made a choice you wouldn’t have in any other situation, didn’t you? Because my father lost his mind calling Deepground to his help, you went to search for allies outside the company.”

His eyelids opened a slit, contemplative.

“If it had happened differently, I would have gladly been the ally you needed. We could have done great things, you and I.”

“Perhaps,” Veld conceded. “But that time has passed.”

He took a step back, a clear signal for Tseng to shoot.

“Wait!”

Reeve Tuesti appeared out of nowhere, butting in in front of Rufus in a way that had the son of the President stagger back. He frowned at the Turks, apparently unimpressed with the gun pointed at his chest.

“You would have the new world be built upon the blood of the old? How would that make us better than Shinra?”

His voice was harsh, much more assured than the meek tones he had been using with Rufus. The cat toy clutched in his hand did nothing to diminish the aura of authority his broad shoulders projected.

Vincent lifted an eyebrow. He had been short-sighted. _This_ was the man whose survival Rain had marked a top priority. A man who had evidently hidden strong ethics and a cunning mind in the very bowels of Shinra, where the association of both of these qualities was as good as a death warrant.

“Out of the way,” Tseng said.

There was a single gunshot.

Tseng’s weapon flew out of his hand. He clutched at his wrist with a grimace of pain as he and Veld turned to Vincent in surprise. The two Turks at the door had tensed, ready to intervene.

“My orders are clear,” he said, not lowering his gun. “No harm is to befall Reeve Tuesti.”

“Tuesti?” Veld blinked. “Who gave this order?”

When Vincent only answered with silence, he shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter. He is of no concern to us.”

“There will be enough bloodshed today. Veld, if Rufus Shinra is to survive the fall of his father, let the people decide his fate. What few allies he still has are as powerless as him.”

“In the company, maybe,” Veld said, narrowing his eyes. “But I have my suspicions…”

Vincent didn’t answer. He didn’t move either.

After a long moment of indecision, Veld sighed.

“You won’t budge on this. I don’t want to fight you, old friend. You may be right… but if you’re wrong, I fear the price we will have to pay.”

“We cannot predict the future,” Tuesti said. “But we can at least make sure we stand up to it with humanity. Too long Shinra has operated on suspicion, crushing innocent lives any time there was even the slightest risk of opposition rising against it. It’s time we try something different.”

Veld looked at him with new eyes.

“Hmm… Perhaps.”

 

* * *

 

The chase was long and exhausting. Weiss used every trick of the book to lose them for a few minutes.

It should not have been so hard to stop a man from climbing up in a building that had only the one staircase. Of course, the fact that he could create his own gateways to the upper levels with a few sword strokes tended to muddle the trail.

By the time Sephiroth finally tackled Weiss to the ground, forcing him to jump to his feet and face them, even Rain had to take a moment to catch his breath. He glanced around, instinctively searching for obstacles or anything that could help in the battle.

He did a double take. Swore with feeling.

_Of course my luck would be this bad. Of_ course _we’d stop here._

They had made it all the way to Floor 67, very nearly to the top of the tower.

But more importantly, they were right at Hojo’s doorstep.

This was one of two floors that served as the Science Department headquarters. Rain himself had experience with the prison cells in one corner of the level. Once upon a time, less than a corridor away, had been housed Jenova’s headless body.

“Stay focused!” Sephiroth snapped.

He blinked. The air he hadn’t realized he was holding in rushed out, leaving him dizzy for a moment. No time to recover: at Sephiroth’s signal he dived in the fight, attacking Weiss’ flank and forcing him to give up his shockwave move to block Remus’ strike.

Sephiroth took the opportunity to disengage. Rain heard him run to one of the rare windows. It wouldn’t open, not so high above the ground and in a domain whose master cared little for sunlight and fresh air—not that it was possible to get either in Midgar in the first place. But one hit from Masamune’s hilt and it collapsed in a twinkling shower of glass. Immediately, a faint but familiar noise reached Rain’s ears over the whistling of the winds surging inside.

Helicopter blades.

“ _Highwind_ , this is Sephiroth. An aircraft has just taken off from the top of the tower or will proceed to do so shortly. Don’t shoot them down, but do not let them flee Midgar either. The President and the last Restrictor are on board.”

The radio sputtered a string of Cid’s favourite swearwords.

“And how d’you propose we hold out to one of those Restrainers bastards if we can’t gun them out of the sky, huh?”

“This is Reno of the Turks,” another voice butted in. “Moving in to assist on your west flank. Come on Grandpa, this’ll be fun!”

“I’ll give you f@&$ing fun!”

Weiss had tensed all over. His eyes shone with a sickly, frenzied rage. He charged forward and Rain grunted under the strength of the assault. He had to take a step back, and Weiss’ pistol blade was suddenly pointed right at his face. Masamune intercepted the bullet in a flash of silver.

Weiss roared, infuriated. There was nothing human left in him at that point, no chance to reason with him. But Sephiroth and him, they could take him down. They had this. If they worked together, he truly believed that there was nothing they couldn’t do.

It was perhaps this confidence that left him so ill-prepared for what would follow.

 

* * *

 

“Alright, nice and slow now,” Reno drawled.

He nudged the stick, drawing closer to the unmarked black copter, trying to corral it to a patch of ground under the control of the First Class meatheads down below. It was easier said than done, as the slow idiots were still mostly strolling under Plate. They might have to force the President and his guard dog through the hole in the Plate left by the collapsed railway so they could rally with Hewley and Rhapsodos in the slums. Only problem: the _Highwind_ had too much of a potbelly to fit through that. Reno would have to do all the work, as usual.

President Shinra had been hogging the radio for the past five minutes, alternatively trying to buy their loyalty and barking ridiculous threats. Highwind and him were currently engaged in a shouting match about, of all things, space rockets. It proved instructive if only by the ratio of swearwords Highwind could use in a single sentence. Reno was almost impressed.

“Yo, Rude, you doing alright back there?” he yelled over his shoulder.

He barely heard his partner grunt a reply before his machine gun spat a new salvo at a squad of jetpack-wearing Deepground assholes. One would think they’d have received the message by now that they wouldn’t be getting any closer, but they kept coming like flies.

He was just about to interrupt Highwind’s raving so that they could get some work done when there was a roar. For a moment, it drowned even the whirring of the blades overhead. The radio fell silent.

“That your stomach?” Reno asked Rude, uneasy.

“No. Look.”

He twisted in his chair to squint through the open backdoor.

“Holy sh—!”

High on the side of Shinra HQ, nearly at the top, a massive shape smashed through the wall.

Reno banked away, spooked that the thing would be coming right at them. But it appeared solely preoccupied with the two much smaller dots tumbling into free fall alongside it. One of them caught the other’s hand and jammed something in the side of the tower, carving a long trench down it and somewhat slowing their descent. Then the creature swiped at them and they had to disengage to evade.

“Yo… Is that Sephiroth and the Deepground reject?”

Rude grunted in agreement.

“Those guys get all the fun.”

He sat back, but his eyes found the hole that had been punched in the tower.

There was one more person up there, standing right at the edge. He was too far away to see his face, but his hair was too pale for him to be Valentine.

Reno’s stomach seized in foreboding.

A corona of energy formed around the guy. In the blink of an eye, he launched himself from the tower… and straight at Shinra’s helicopter.

Flames immediately erupted from the side of the aircraft. It veered, whirling wildly through the air as smoke billowed around it. It dived through the opening in the Plate Reno had been leading it towards, disappearing from sight.

The silence on the radio was deafening.

“Well, um…” Reno stammered. “Restrictors are resilient bastards… Right?”

 

* * *

 

Zack ducked and rolled, letting Kunsel’s sword hit the floor in a shower of sparks.

“Come on man, snap out of it! I don’t want to have to hurt you. You still owe me money!”

No answer. Zack had been carrying on a steady stream of comments and pleas in the hope of prompting some familiarity in his friend’s brainwashed psyche, but it was like he didn’t even hear him. Nothing phased him. He just kept coming at Zack, who was having more and more trouble keeping him at bay.

He grimaced when their weapons met with undue strength. His radio muttered something about a helicopter, but he had no attention to spare. He had to knee Kunsel in the stomach to disengage.

“Sorry! Sor—”

He was cut off when Kunsel flew at him, having barely flinched from the hit. Taken aback, Zack tripped and they crashed to the floor. They rolled around for a while, each grasping for the other’s weapon. Zack managed to send Kunsel’s spinning away. Kunsel jumped to his feet to run after it.

“Ha! Sloppy, man.”

Zack would have taken that split second of peace to catch his breath, but at that moment the door to the stairway opened.

“Zack? We heard your voice. You need help here?”

It was Cloud. Zack watched in horror as his unenhanced friend took stock of the situation, his eyes widening. There were other men behind him, members of his squad, but none of them could move a finger as the rogue SOLDIER snatched his sword from the floor and flew at the easy target.

Zack tackled him mid-air. All oxygen was expelled from his lungs as they met the ground once again, this time with him on top. Kunsel’s head struck the tiles and his helmet went rolling. Fear still clutching his gut, Zack sat up.

“Right. Sorry buddy, but I’d rather have a friend with a bump on his head than a dead one.”

He was about to bring the hilt of his sword against Kunsel’s temple when his friend blinked. His overblown pupils shrank rapidly, giving way to a confused expression.

“… Zack?”

Zack froze. Kunsel squinted up at him.

“Why are you sitting on me?”

“Huh,” Zack said, dumbfounded. “Guess you just needed one good hit on the noggin after all.”

Just then, his radio sputtered a burst of static. Genesis’ voice rose, heavily distorted by the Plate’s interference. He sounded livid.

“Which one of you _idiots_ killed our last Restrictor?”

Zack’s stomach dropped to his feet.

“Or not.”

 

* * *

 

“Look alive, Genesis. Weiss was last spotted going down under Plate. You and Angeal will have to take care of him before he rallies troops.”

Sephiroth climbed to his feet with a bit of difficulty. The sudden fall had disoriented even him. A few feet away, a prostrate Cloud moved, dislodging the debris that had been blanketing his body.

“Wasn’t he _your_ target, Sephiroth?” his radio spat at him with venom. “How did you let it go this far?”

“We’re facing an unforeseen complication up here.”

He lent a hand to Cloud who stumbled upright, squinting through the dust of the building they had shattered on impact. Behind the billowing clouds, the silhouette of their enemy could just be seen, grotesque and looming. It could have been a common monster, if it hadn’t been for the unwelcome buzzing in the back of Sephiroth’s mind.

He exchanged a somber look with Cloud. They had always known Hojo would be the wildcard in their plans. He couldn’t have let his latest hell beast out at a worst time, but they would have to make the most of what remained. They would get rid of it and go provide support to Genesis and Angeal below. Salvaging the situation would be hard, but not impossible. Genesis had already let off chewing him out to start damage control, though he would no doubt have more to stay on the matter later.

Cloud fished his second weapon out of the remains of a crumbling wall and squared off on his feet as the hulking beast moved towards them. It didn’t seem to be walking so much as slithering. A moment later, it emerged in full view.

Cloud drew in a startled breath. Sephiroth was forced to reassess the severity of their circumstances.

“Finally, you come!” Hojo crowed, spectacles glinting eerily at them from thirty feet above their heads.

The rags of his white coat still clung to his shoulders, but it flapped uselessly over a grotesquely deformed torso, elongated to connect to the mess of writhing flesh and tentacles that propelled him forwards. His arms were two heavy pincers, so asymmetric the left one seemed more fit to use as a hammer. His skin was mottled shades of angry purple and orange. It bubbled, forming and dissolving stumps of members and monster heads in endless cycles. His face, too, had morphed, and there was nothing human remaining in the way eager delight stretched his lips in a too wide grin.

Against himself, Sephiroth took a step back. Nausea churned in his gut.

For all that he hated and despised this man, he had known him all his life. Hojo had always been there, prodding him to push himself further, convincing the President to promote him despite his young age, humming in cold interest at obscure sheets of numbers while Sephiroth slid on his coat after yet another health test.

According to Cloud, this monster in front of him was his father.

“What have you done?”

Oblivious to his quiet horror, Hojo cackled.

“You thought you could get away from me once more? If you want something done right, do it yourself! Those castoffs weren’t worthy of my time, so I injected myself with all the remaining J cells. Not the unstable cloned cells, either. The original ones, everything I managed to salvage! Let’s see you try to avoid the Reunion _now_ , Sephiroth!”

The static in his head suddenly amped up a dozen levels, making him waver on his feet.

“Ow!” Cloud exclaimed, buckling under the assault. “That didn’t happen last time!”

Multiple tentacles surged towards them. They jumped in opposite directions. The Hojo monster turned to follow Sephiroth, not paying the last bit of attention to Cloud. Sephiroth saw him regain his footing and rush the enemy. The right claw fell to the ground, neatly cut at the shoulder.

“Ow! You little pest!”

Hojo made to swat Cloud with his hammer-like arm. Sephiroth took the opportunity to slash down the tentacles still reaching for him. Hojo’s base flailed and squirmed and started sprouting even more of them. Alarmed, he looked up and saw the missing arm begin to regrow.

“You still resist?” Hojo yelled, outraged.

The J cells buzzing climbed yet another notch. Sephiroth grunted and fought a wave of vertigo, barely rolling away from a new attack.

Cloud and him took turns hacking at the creature’s numerous limbs, but no matter how many they got rid of, more kept coming. And still the pall on their minds became stronger, slowing their thoughts, turning their arms and legs to lead.

“You said you fought him like this before?” Sephiroth called to Cloud, panting.

“Not like this! I don’t know how he got this strong. Something’s not right.”

“What is _right_ about this situation, Cloud?”

The hammer arm punched the ground between them, forcing them to separate.

Sephiroth focused on pushing back Hojo’s assault, losing sight of Cloud for a moment. When he heard him call his name, his eyes slid sideways to see him running on top of a nearby wall. Cloud jumped, heading straight for Hojo. He slashed off three tentacles aiming for him, then let go of his weapons. Sephiroth’s heart gave a sickening jerk. But then Cloud reached for him.

It was pure instinct that had him push off the ground with all the considerable strength his legs could still muster. He rose to Cloud’s level, free hand extended in offering. Cloud’s gripped it, his arms bunched up, and suddenly Sephiroth was flying. He tore straight through the opening in the monster’s defenses Cloud had just created.

Hojo’s eyes widened behind his lenses, his mouth opened. For one more taunt? Sephiroth grit his teeth and didn’t let himself falter. Masamune flashed.

The creature’s head described an arc and fell to the ground with a wet thud.

Sephiroth let gravity carry him back down. There was a hollowness in his chest he wasn’t ready to examine yet. He frowned when his landing was less than smooth, sending him stumbling two steps forwards. He turned to Cloud, finding him with a strange expression on his face. Surprise and… something too subdued to be joy. Nostalgia?

It disappeared before Sephiroth could dissect it properly, to be replaced by stark horror.

“Sephiroth!”

Tentacles wrapped around his arms and torso before he could move.

He was lifted in the air and brought before the nightmarish vision that was Hojo’s head regrowing in pulsing bubbles of forming flesh. If the creature’s face had up to that point been recognizable as Hojo’s, there was nothing left of it now. When he opened what could only be called a maw, even his voice had morphed.

“You cannot stop me,” he said in a mess of high and cavernous notes. “Every time you cut me down, my link to the J cells is stronger!! I am almost her, now. I will be the Reunion!”

Sephiroth’s stomach took flight. He dropped straight down, the tentacles holding him sliced apart by Remus and Romulus. A fire spell had the writhing limbs relish their lingering grip on him. He took Cloud’s offered hand and hauled himself to his feet.

Just then, a new wave of dizziness struck them. It didn’t let up. Sephiroth’s vision went hazy. Too late, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He would have been caught again if Cloud hadn’t slammed in his flank, with so much strength they cleared a few feet in free fall and rolled behind a nearby wall.

Sephiroth found himself on his back, panting. Through the remains of the building’s roof, he could see the Shinra tower looming over them on a background of ominous clouds. The warm body pressed against his own moved. Cloud’s blond hair and blue eyes appeared above him, the colours stark against a world of grey. He would have taken solace in them, but Cloud’s eyes were wide with something he had rarely seen there.

Fear.

“You have to get out of here.”

“Excuse me?” he returned, outraged.

“It’s you he wants, Sephiroth,” Cloud insisted, urgent. “I get it now, why he’s different. The moron injected himself with the last live J cells. Whatever is left of Jenova, it’s in him!”

And Cloud didn’t want him anywhere near Jenova. He understood, now. Cloud wasn’t afraid for his life. He was afraid on behalf of Sephiroth.

But was he afraid for him, or of him? the bitterness in his heart asked.

“I’m not getting anywhere.”

“But…!”

“What are you proposing, Cloud? Letting him follow me and find the troops? He would slaughter them.”

He saw the way Cloud’s eyes flitted to the side.

“If you think I am letting you fight this thing alone, you’re delusional,” he flatly rebuked. Before Cloud could retort anything, he added without mercy: “You would fail to hold his attention, anyway. You saw him fight. You could cut him in half that he would still be focused on me.”

Cloud groaned in dismay. The sound of shifting debris alerted them to Hojo looking for them.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” he said in his strange, wavering voice.

They only had seconds before he found them. Cloud moved off him, allowing him to squat by his side. Their eyes met and caught. Cloud’s were still wide, inhabited by more emotion than Sephiroth remembered ever seeing in them. An internal battle raged in him, and whatever it was, it had changed fear into terror. Sephiroth set a hand on his shoulder, concerned.

Resolve hardened Cloud’s face. He took a deep breath, shoulder rising under Sephiroth’s palm.

“Alright,” he said. “Then you fight him. I’ll cover you.”

Before he could ask him what he meant, Cloud dug the tip of Romulus deep into the ground, clenched both hands around its hilt and closed his eyes. His lips became a thin, hard line.

A spark came to life at the back of Sephiroth’s mind. In the space of a heartbeat, it burst into a blazing fire. In the space of two, a wall. The static ceased. The alien weight on his bones lifted. He felt light, free, released from a burden he had worn all his life without even realizing it.

Cloud’s eyes opened. They were a glowing aquamarine, their iris vertical slits of black. His mind pressed against Sephiroth’s, an impenetrable shield to his vulnerable back.

“Go,” he said.

Sephiroth had never loved someone more.

The feeling rolled effortlessly through his mindscape, its roaring intensity new but its essence so familiar that he didn’t think to curb it until it was already sending ripples of shock into another. The shield heaved and buckled under great waves of emotions, an earthquake that sundered the ground and cracked open the sky. The buzzing came back for a moment, then cut off as the protection returned, held tight by despair and stubbornness alone.

Cloud had gone pale as a sheet. Sweat shone on his brow. If Sephiroth hadn’t caught a glimpse of the gaping chasm of terror his unwilling confession had opened in that beloved mind, his face still would have told him everything he needed to know.

He rose.

Hojo had stopped searching the ruins for them, instead shaking his head and hissing in agitation. Saliva frothed at his mouth and dripped from his jaw.

“Problem?” Sephiroth asked coldly, stepping up to him.

He felt frozen inside, hard in a way he hadn’t felt since Genesis and Angeal had turned their backs on him.

“What HAve yoU doNe?” Hojo spat. One of his eyes had begun to shine an eerie mauve light. As Sephiroth watched, his skin turned entirely purple.

“No more of your tricks, Hojo. This is the end.”

He lifted Masamune to his shoulder in his standard fighting stance. Cloud had given him this, at least. Strength filling his body, the power to never again be submitted to the whims of this madman.

He pushed forward.

In the same instant, Hojo arched up with an earsplitting shriek. A tentacle launched from his foot, quicker than anything should have moved. Sephiroth evaded, but it passed him by and kept going, longer and longer, the skin getting harder with every foot it grew.

He understood in the second before it happened, but was powerless to stop it.

“ _NO!!_ ”

The wicked point buried into Cloud’s chest, right into his heart.

For a moment, all was silent. Cloud’s slit eyes looked down in incredulity. He was still knelt on the ground, both hands gripping his sword’s hilt.

The tentacle retreated. Cloud wavered. Sephiroth dived to catch him as he fell, only distantly aware of the thing that had been Hojo fleeing, smashing through walls in its confusion. Cloud’s heavy weight in his arms was his sole reality, everything that kept him tethered to the here and now.

There was a gaping hole where Cloud’s heart should have been.

Cloud’s mind was still attached to his own, wide open now. There was so much pain in him, although the sheer shock and incredulity pushed it down.

But above it all, drowning everything, even stronger than before…

The fear.

Cloud’s eyes were locked with his, tears sliding down his face. And even as he struggled to utter something, anything, even as Sephiroth scrambled to anchor his fading mind to his, to the living world, even as his emotions grew weaker and weaker… the fear remained.

Cloud’s eyes dimmed.

His body sagged.

His mind dissolved to nothingness.

And then it was all that was left, a sour taste on the back of his tongue, permeating the air.

Fear.

 

* * *

 

Aerith was in the middle of checking Kunsel’s bump to the head when she froze.

Cloud didn’t notice at first. Sergeant Bolt was chewing him up for barging into an unknown situation, Tifa frowning at him in agreement from behind the man’s shoulder. Zack, bless his heart, kept claiming, “no harm done, no harm done!” So it was Kunsel who asked:

“Uh. Miss Gainsborough? Are you alright?”

They turned to see her crouching beside her patient, staring into space.

Around them, medics bustled above more heavily wounded soldiers lying on cots or blankets on the ground. Most of Shinra tower was theirs now, with what little remained of Deepground’s forces here too confused by the loss of their chain of command to oppose much resistance, so they had taken the opportunity to regroup with part of their rearguard in the huge ground floor foyer. Zack had a few squads cleaning up the upper levels.

Zack called his girlfriend’s name, lowering a worried hand on her shoulder. She blinked, coming back to herself. When she turned to him, she looked deeply troubled.

“Zack,” she said. “We have to go.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re about done here, and it sounds like Genesis and Angeal could use our help below Plate…”

“No,” she interrupted. “Not below Plate.”

She took off without another word, heading straight for the foyer’s exit turnstiles. Zack’s spluttered, taken aback. He looked frantically between her and the troops awaiting his commands.

“We’ll follow her,” Cloud told him, ignoring Bolt’s disapproving grunt. “You take care of things here and catch up, Zack.”

Zack smiled, relieved.

“Thanks, Spike.”

Cloud, Tifa and Nanaki sprinted down the stairs after their friend, leaving Zack to give his orders to Kunsel and Bolt. They pushed through the turnstiles, Nanaki hopping on top of the metal contraption, and burst through the doors.

Outside, Midgar was eerily quiet. There were distant gunshots and the sounds of faraway explosions, but all the fighting was happening below Plate. The buildings nearby seemed deserted. If there were any citizen that had not fled for the outer city at the first signs of a struggle in the tower, they were boarded up deep in their homes, far from the shops of the Shinra plaza. Cloud didn’t know what Aerith was expecting to find here, but there she was, disappearing in a sidestreet. They called to her, but she showed no sign of hearing them.

They rounded the corner after her and skidded to a stop. Cloud was forced to scratch his previous thought that nothing was going on around here. The buildings in front of them had taken a heavy hit, debris lying in the street from the unknown force that had gutted their roofs.

Warm pink peeked through a hole in the front wall. Bolt’s advice already forgotten, Cloud unsheathed his sword and jumped through, Tifa and Nanaki hot on his heels.

Aerith whirled around. Her eyes landed on Cloud, wide with remorse. Sorrow dripped unchecked from her bloodless cheeks.

“Cloud…”

He stared back without understanding. He could see no wound on her.

Then he spotted the two figures huddled at her feet.

His vision flashed a violent red. He stumbled on legs that threatened to buckle under his weight. From very far away, he heard Tifa gasp.

Under Midgar’s angry clouds, Rain was washed of all colours. His skin was a uniform grey, his tired but kind blue eyes hidden behind heavy lids. Even his blond hair disappeared beneath a layer of pale dust. He lay in Sephiroth’s arms, limp and lifeless. The hole in his chest stared Cloud in the face.

“What did you do?”

His voice came from a place deep inside of him, hoarse and broken in a way he had never heard. Sephiroth didn’t move. He knelt in the dirt, head ducked. His hair brushed against Rain’s body, curling on his dark clothes like wisps of blood in water.

“What did you do?” Cloud screamed, and now the tears came, burning hot on his frozen skin. “You were supposed to have his back. You were supposed to be the best!! How could you let this happen?!”

Tifa’s arms closed around him. He sagged against her, muffling a shout in her shoulder. His legs finally gave up, pushing them both to the ground. Tifa didn’t let go, clutching him to her as if her hands could hold all the shattered pieces of him together. Her tears mingled with his as he sobbed hard enough to shake her slim frame.

“Guys! I heard shouting, what’s going—”

Zack barged in and stopped dead in his tracks. The silence that followed was more than Cloud could bear.

His brother would have had a pithy comment just about now. He would have ruffled his hair, told him not to worry. He would have had a plan to make everything better. For all that Rain doubted himself, in the end, he always came through. For all that he fell, he always got back on his feet.

He would never see him stand tall again.

He would never hear his advice again, never see him smile again. He would never get to introduce Rain to their mother, never badger him into teaching him how to ride a bike. He would never even get to hear his voice in his mind again.

The scrape of gravel shifting had him lift his head. Through bleary eyes, he saw Sephiroth lay Rain down on the ground with infinite care. The SOLDIER stood up.

Sephiroth’s eyes were dry. There was no grief that Cloud could read in them, but then again, he had no name for the emotion that darkened them. His face was as if carved from stone. His limbs were lax, his posture neutral. But the hair rose on Cloud’s arms and a terrible shiver skittered up his spine.

Zack took a step towards him.

“Sephiroth…”

Sephiroth looked at him, stopping him mid-gesture. The air felt heavy. All outside sounds had hushed, leaving them in the pregnant quiet of a closed world. Cloud only noticed it had become difficult to breathe when he started feeling light-headed.

After a small eternity, Sephiroth turned and walked away. His tall figure parted the swirling clouds of ash and dust. He was soon swallowed by them.

The bubble popped. The invisible weight that had been crushing Cloud’s shoulders down fell away. He heaved in a huge gasp of air, relieving his straining lungs. Tifa still clung to him, so close he could feel her quiver.

“What was _that_?” she whispered.

Cloud turned to Zack, saw him gulp. He was staring at the place Sephiroth had disappeared.

“I have to… I have to go.”

Without a word more, he took off after his friend and superior.

Cloud felt frozen inside. All of Rain’s deepest fears flooded him and coalesced into his guts.

Gently, he pried himself from Tifa’s grip. His legs shook as he got up, but he locked his knees and refused to fall.

“I have to follow them,” he said in a sliver of a voice.

All three of his friends clamoured their protests, but he spoke over them.

“Please stay here. I can’t…”

He swallowed a sudden sob, roughly brushed the tears from his face.

“I don’t want Rain to be alone.”

His voice was so weak he was afraid he was the only one who heard it. But when he stepped back, Tifa, Aerith and Nanaki didn’t move. He couldn’t stand the pain and the empathy in their eyes.

He turned and ran after Zack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the next chapter is coming in a matter of days. I’ll post it as soon as I edit it, and then there’ll only be the epilogue left. *clutches your lapels and shakes you with crazy eyes* DON’T LEAVE ME YET! WE’RE NEARLY THERE!
> 
> (I understand this is the meanest cliffhanger to date, which is saying something, so if you absolutely need a spoiler to keep breathing, you can come yell at me on [Tumblr](http://yourdragonisinanothercastle.tumblr.com/) and I'll reply to you.)


	22. Chapter 21

Shinra truly was a world of excess. What other company would have, in the space of a few months, built a huge arena in an overcrowded city for the sake of a one-time televised event?

Who else would have chosen such a grand location, knowing that the SOLDIER competition was only a front for the rise of Deepground?

And who else would then let the arena stand, half-destroyed and left to rot, no doubt as proof of Shinra’s might and what would happen to anyone daring to oppose it?

Zack’s run slowed to a walk as he entered the massive shadow of the building. From the outside, not much of the damage could be seen. There were only a few holes and cracks in the domed roof. Yet for all it was new, it had the feeling of a ruin, feared and forsaken by men. Doors dotted the walls at regular intervals. They were wide open, gaping over a dark interior. Zack breathed in deeply and plunged through.

There was no electricity inside. He followed a corridor in near complete obscurity, guided only by the glow of his eyes and a light at the end. He emerged in the stadium itself, at the top of the spectator stands. The cracks in the dome let in curtains of grey sunlight in which dust traced hypnotising swirls. Silhouetted on that background, he found the man he had been looking for.

“Sephiroth! There you are, man.”

There was no response. Sephiroth had his back turned to him. His coat and boots were tarnished with dirt, except in a few spots where it shone wetly.

Blood, Zack realised with a rush of nausea. Rain’s blood.

He braced himself and approached warily. When Sephiroth gave no outward reaction to his presence, he followed his eyes down to what held so much of his focus.

The stands were littered with debris, at least where they hadn’t outright collapsed. It was worse in the arena proper, where the once flat ground was a mess of gouges and fragments of walls scattered there as if by a giant.

In the middle of the destruction, a creature sat. It would have been hard to miss. It was the only splash of colour in the place, deep purple as it was, and forty feet tall besides. It kept squirming, far too many limbs writhing around its frame, and moaned in either pain or confusion.

Zack took a disgusted step back.

“What is _that_?”

“That,” Sephiroth said, tone flat, “is my father.”

“That’s _Hojo_?”

Hearing its name, the monster turned and saw them there. There was nothing human in its face anymore, nothing to recognise the man it had once been. Even its voice, when it opened his maw to speak, was more akin to the screech of a dying beast.

“SePHirothhHh,” it pleaded. “hElp ME! YoU muSt helP! She iSSS takIng coNTroL… I waNt REunIon, buT not LIke thiSss… nOt LikE thIs!”

Expression utterly blank, Sephiroth made to step forward. He had Masamune in hand. Struck by something undefinable in the air around him, Zack leapt in his path.

“Out of my way, Zack.”

“Wait! Sephiroth, wait. You’re not being yourself right now. Please calm down.”

“I am very calm. Haven’t you heard him? He wants my help.”

Zack gulped.

“Look, I… I understand you’re angry. Rain will be… We’re all grieving.”

Searing green eyes jumped to his for the first time. They were set in a face of stone. Zack stepped back, heart thudding in his throat.

“You understand nothing.”

“You won’t come back from this, Sephiroth,” he tried again. “No matter what an awful, petty little man he was, what a monster he has become… there’s no coming back from killing your own father.”

“kIll?” Hojo repeated, his agitation doubling. “No. No, YOu muSt HElp! SepHirOth! I mAde yOU inTo What yOu ARe. You owE Me eveRYThing! I am YOur cReaTor!”

A pale fire ignited in Sephiroth’s eyes.

“Then you made me into a patricide. It is only fitting; a monster killed by a monster. Out of my way, Zack.”

Sephiroth’s bloodthirst was a palpable weight in the atmosphere now, but still Zack didn’t move, instead opening his mouth for another plea. Sephiroth didn’t let him pronounce a word. Masamune’s handle punched into his ribcage, sending him sailing.

He slammed into the stands two dozen feet below. He rolled onto his flank, groaning. That was at least a few ribs cracked. Sephiroth hadn’t pulled his strength at all. If Zack hadn’t twisted to the side at the last moment, his heart may well have stopped from the hit.

It was one thing that they disagreed, but to risk killing him… Sephiroth was out of control.

Dread clutching his innards, he groped for his radio. He found it crushed beneath his weight. He stared at the dented casing, teeth gritted. What had he hoped for, anyway? Angeal and Genesis had their own disaster to manage below Plate. Rain was dead.

No. It would have to be him.

He rolled to his feet and drew his sword. Sephiroth was strolling down the stairs at an unhurried pace, eyes drilling into Hojo.

“I wouldn’t be your friend if I let you do this!” Zack yelled, charging him.

 

* * *

 

Aerith crossed Rain’s bloodstained hands over his chest, hiding the hole there. She brushed the blond hair away from his forehead.

“Even in death, he looks grumpy,” Tifa said, her voice strangled.

Aerith attempted a poor smile, but didn’t reply.

To her, Rain didn’t look grumpy. He looked anguished. What sort of turmoil could one take with oneself into the Lifestream? He had done so much to protect them, to guide them. He had struggled so hard, faced so much pain…

Aerith was no stranger to death. As a Cetra, she had a natural connection to the cycle of life. She grieved, but not as humans did. After all, she knew that no soul disappeared. They simply went into the Lifestream, to be reunited with their loved ones and become one with the voice of the Planet.

Yet this face Rain wore in death was that of a man who had failed. And to see him hurting so much, after everything he had sacrificed for them… she found that her heart was breaking.

Tifa gulped down a fortifying breath. She was standing away from the body, unable to kneel by his side like Aerith.

“We should… we should bring him back to camp,” she said. It was plain she didn’t want to do this, but considered it her duty. She was after all the only one of them who could lift him. “The medics will… take care of him.”

“In a moment,” Nanaki responded, his deep voice soothing. “Aerith is not done.”

She smiled at him, grateful. Joining her hands in prayer, she bowed her head above Rain’s.

Let him find peace, she begged. She followed the tendrils of life down; the insects and small animals nesting in the Plate below their feet, the humans fighting and loving in the slums, then the meagre blades of grass, the worms in the earth; and deeper, deeper still, until life turned into a brook, then a stream, then a river. Let him find peace, she begged to the Lifestream, to the Planet. He has given so much for you. Please give back to him in return.

But as her consciousness brushed with so many others, she became aware of a thrum of unease. Her brow creased.

Flashes of fire burst inside her eyelids, the remains of a memory that was not hers. Her eyes snapped open. Something was not right.

 

* * *

 

Cloud was well and truly lost.

He had taken off after Zack, but his friend ran much faster than him. He had thought he knew most of Midgar with all the patrols he had worked as an infantryman, but everything looked different. The shops’ neon signs were all unlit, the streets dark, the windows boarded up. He had seen no trace of anyone living. The sheer loneliness of this ghost city made him stop, gasping, on the verge of a panic attack. A sob tore out of his throat.

Not now, he rebuked ruthlessly. Don’t think about it now. You have to finish what Rain started.

He searched around for his bearings once more. For the first time, he noticed a big building peeking over the roofs. He squinted at it. He didn’t remember ever seeing this before. As he watched, a deep rumbling came from that direction. Heart jump-starting in his mouth, he ran.

Just as he made it to the stadium, another groan came from the structure. This time he was close enough to feel the ground shake beneath his feet. Dust rained in sheets from the outer walls. He ducked through the nearest door, tripped around in the dark.

When he made it through to the other side, the light blinded him. He had to skid to a stop, protecting his unenhanced eyes. Before he could recover, the floor toppled under him. His stomach took flight. He had a moment of sheer terror as he fell, blind and unable to catch himself to anything.

He landed harshly some twenty feet below, uneven rubble tumbling under his weight. The collapsed floor’s balance felt precarious, and so for a while he didn’t dare move. Something had struck the stands with great strength, he realised as his eyesight finally came back. He searched for it, wary that it would crush him next.

His breath caught.

“No,” he whispered, voice breaking. “Zack…”

His friend lay spread-eagled in the middle of the wreckage. A wound on his forehead had smeared dark red all over the left side of his face. His bare arms were covered in dust turned black and wet by the blood of multiple cuts. His eyes were closed.

Footsteps echoed under the cracked dome. Sephiroth was down in the stadium, making his way to the grotesque figure at its centre.

Tears traced twin burning paths on Cloud’s cheeks. At first glance, there was nothing wrong with Sephiroth. But Masamune was coated in red, and there was nothing human in the look in his eyes. The air around him hung heavy and hungry.

The creature it was reaching for backed off, terrified.

“SephIroth… HAd yoU groWN so attaChed To thAt DeePGrounD rejEcttt? I CAn creAte yOu anOTher CompAnIon! A beTTer One!” it screeched.

“Be quiet.”

Masamune struck.

But instead of being cleaved in two, the monster let out a shrill, unending shriek as its body seemed to explode outwards. Flesh bubbled and squirmed. The arms appendages were absorbed, then the head, cutting off the scream in one last gurgle. Cloud clapped a trembling hand to his mouth, holding with difficulty onto the churning contents of his stomach.

Whatever it was reformed into a huge, vile grey sphere of meat. From it emerged, wiggling, what appeared to be a feminine torso. Its abdomen was one giant gap. From either side of it sprouted two three-pronged tentacles. What should have been the head was obscured by a fold of purple flesh.

Despite the incredible mass of it all, it floated above the ground, dwarfing Sephiroth’s form. The greatest SOLDIER of the Planet wasn’t moved.

“Jenova,” he said. “We meet at last.”

Cloud hated what he heard in his voice, even as he could not qualify it. There was nothing of the deranged love Rain had cautioned about, but it still grated against his very bones.

“You are the source of it all. The pain we all suffered, the alienation, the fear; everything was the fruits of the obsession of madmen for you.”

He stopped for a moment. Jenova was still and silent.

“I can feel you rooting around in my head,” he observed, and though his tone was casual, Cloud once more held onto the urge to vomit. “Look at you. Reduced to the barest shell of your existence. So many of your cells, stolen or destroyed. You long to retrieve those you can feel in my body. But don’t bother with your Reunion. I am not interested.”

He lifted Masamune, eyes hard.

“I think I’d rather destroy you.”

He made to rush at her, but the tentacles slammed into him with blinding speed. He was flicked away like an inconvenient fly and she rose towards the dome. She would go look for more of her cells, Cloud thought with a burst of panic. The city was crammed full of SOLDIERs, both Deepground and not. Angeal and Genesis. Rain’s body!

Sephiroth flipped mid-air. His boots left deep gouges in the arena’s loose soil as he stopped his momentum. His face was full of rage.

“You dare to ignore me?”

He jumped straight towards her. It was clear to Cloud that even he wouldn’t reach the height Jenova already hovered at.

But then the wing unfolded from his back.

 

* * *

 

A ripple shook the darkness.

He found himself aware, as if awakened from a deep sleep.

He immediately wished he wasn’t.

His soul was tired, exhausted to its very marrow. He wanted nothing more than rest and oblivion.

_“Envoy…”_

He tried to ignore the whisper, but it was soon joined by a chorus, each voice more pressing than the next. Fear and panic echoed all around him, threatening to unravel his being.

_“It’s happening.”_

_“He has awakened!”_

_“Destruction, destruction, destruction.”_

_“The Planet must survive!”_

_“The Calamity.”_

_“Her son!”_

_“He has awakened!”_

The words were weapons, only made more cutting when their meaning trickled into his mind. He curled into a ball, shying from a reality he wanted nothing to do with. ‘No,’ he wept. ‘No, let me sleep. Let someone else fight. Leave me in peace.’

But peace was not to be found. The voices of the Lifestream plucked at his being, crying out in terror, calling him “Envoy” and “Saviour”. Still he denied them, but his resolve was weakening.

A soft light appeared in the void. Reluctantly, he pried his eyelids open. A being spun of white and gold stood before him, shining gently in the darkness. Though her face was smooth and beautiful, her eyes reflected the weight of countless ages.

_When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end, The goddess descends from the sky._

He shivered, feeling sick to his core. She didn’t speak a word, but her presence somehow helped, however little.

He pushed the grief away. It resisted, clung to him, but there would be time for it later. Time to lick his wounds and patch himself back together into a semblance of human being. Again. Or maybe there wouldn’t be. Maybe finally, he could truly rest.

But his work was not yet done. Though it may break him this time, that burden was still his to shoulder.

Light blinded him. There was a great rush like a tidal wave in his ears. He opened his mouth and found himself gasping in a breath. The pain was immediate and debilitating. He would have screamed if his punctured lung had let him do so. Yet in an instant, everything stopped. He was left blinking at the last traces of the pillar of light vanishing around him.

He was lying on the ground. The air smelled of dust, blood and ozone. Aerith was bent over his prone body, hands clasped to her chest in a familiar position, chestnut braid just brushing his shoulder. Her eyes glowed bright green.

As he watched, the glow faded and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She collapsed, just missing falling on him.

There was a noise like a sob. Tifa, he realised. There was Tifa, standing a few feet away, fingers pressed to her mouth, tears shining in her red-rimmed eyes. And Red, padding closer to sniff at Aerith, worry abating as he ascertained that she was simply unconscious. Rain sat up slowly. He looked at his chest. Only undamaged skin peeked through the hole in his blood-soaked shirt.

“How?” Tifa gasped. “You were… you were…”

He laid a gentle hand on Aerith’s forehead, contemplating.

“I never believed she was so powerful,” Red said, voice hushed with awe.

“It wasn’t her.”

Or not only her, anyhow. The Planet had used her, the same way she was using him. There was enough life in him to feel a spark of anger at the thought. But what was done was done.

His shirt was stiff, rust-coloured flakes raining from the material every time he shifted. He heaved it over his head and let it drop to the ground. He stood up, but it left him dizzy and winded, leaning against a nearby wall. He had just died and come back to life. He wasn’t in any condition to fight.

He had to.

Tifa and Nanaki watched him move, in shock. They were so young, he thought with a pang. So vulnerable.

Romulus was still buried tip first into the ground, right where he had fallen. He wrapped his hand around the hilt, then had to stop, loss punching him in the ribs.

Remus and Romulus.

He remembered seeing them for the first time, laid out on an unassuming kitchen table, Sephiroth smirking at him above a newspaper. How could he not have known, when he had given them these names, that it would end like this?

He breathed carefully through the pain.

“Where is Sephiroth?”

 

* * *

 

Cloud tugged harder, but only managed to drag Zack another foot. He readjusted his grip on his friend’s shoulders, then had to duck as a new portion of the ceiling crashed to the ground nearby, raining debris on them. He dared to glance up.

Sephiroth was locked in battle with Jenova. Masamune flashed faster than the eye could see, but was more often than not batted aside by the alien’s tentacles. A Bio spell slammed into Sephiroth, sending him spinning head over heels. A single beat from his black wing returned his balance to him. Another propelled him above his enemy. Jenova was just as fast to evade: the attack struck the ground unimpeded, cleaving a fifty-foot gouge into the arena and the stands.

The blast knocked Cloud over. Panting, he got back up and resumed his desperate scramble to get Zack to safety. Now he understood Rain’s pain when he first made him talk about Sephiroth, all those months ago. Now he knew. Tears poured from his eyes. He was nearly grateful for them, as they blurred his sight and masked the way Sephiroth’s skin darkened more and more as his frustration grew.

“You will not escape me!”

His voice was thunder under the dome. He poised himself to strike again, and as Jenova moved to intercept, a Bolt spell had her recoil enough to leave him an opening. One of the tentacles was sliced straight off. It slapped down to the arena ground where it lay coiled, more disgusting than any snake Cloud had ever seen. The other one slashed at Sephiroth, knocking him off the sky. This time he was too low to regroup. He barely managed to get his legs under him before slamming into the bleachers.

Zack chose that moment to regain consciousness. He groaned and made a feeble attempt to lift his head.

“Wha…”

Cloud didn’t react; he was frozen on the spot.

Sephiroth was only ten feet away. From that distance, there was no hiding the charcoal hue of his skin or the horns growing at each of his temples. Zack sucked in a horrified breath.

Up above them, Jenova used a Cure spell on herself. The missing tentacle began regenerating.

Sephiroth’s eyes, riveted to her, flashed in rage. The flesh under his jacket started wriggling, stretching the leather until the stitching popped. He shed his characteristic coat like an unwanted skin.

It was Cloud’s breaking point. He let go of Zack and fell to his knees, face bathed in tears.

“Stop!” he screamed. “Sephiroth… please! Don’t do this! He wouldn’t have wanted you to do this!”

He had expected to be ignored. But Sephiroth halted. Unnatural eyes slid to the corner of his vision and locked on to Cloud. He didn’t dare breathe anymore. Zack was a tight mass of nerves by his side, ready to explode into action at the slightest movement.

Had only the familiarity of his voice called him back for a moment? Sephiroth turned away.

“Didn’t he?” he said as he rose into the air once again. “I have always been a monster in his eyes. The fear that gnawed at his insides and poisoned his life… Wouldn’t he be relieved to know it wasn’t in vain? I can give him this, at least.”

His voice was strong. But under the malice it projected, Cloud could still hear it.

Pain.

Nobody noticed the newcomers spilling from one of the archways. But as Sephiroth and Jenova squared off once more and Masamune caught a rare ray of sunlight, sending dazzling reflections all over the dome, Cloud screamed with everything he had of strength.

“HE CARED FOR YOU!!”

Sephiroth froze.

It had been months since Cloud had felt his brother’s emotions as easily as he did his own. Months since they had shared that perfect intimacy, that perfect understanding of each other. But this, he knew. He knew like he knew the sky was blue behind Midgar’s clouds.

He knew, because he felt the same.

“HE WANTED TO TRUST IN YOU. WANTED IT SO MUCH IT BROKE HIS HEART!”

There was a moment when time seemed to stand still.

Then both of Jenova’s limbs smashed into Sephiroth. He hurtled towards the ground, shedding fistfuls of black feathers. His impact shook the earth and dug a crater in the arena. Cloud gasped, horrified.

Something moved in the crater. An arm popped up first, hand clutched around Masamune’s hilt. Then Sephiroth hoisted himself out. He was bare-chested, so there was a wide expanse of pale, bruised skin to see. The horns had disappeared. His hair was coated in dust.

When he turned to meet Cloud’s eyes, his were green, slit-pupilled, and utterly human.

A fresh batch of tears flooded Cloud’s cheeks. He nodded, unable to speak a single word. Sephiroth nodded back.

“Sephiroth!” Zack yelled in warning.

He made to jump to his feet, but groped in vain for a sword he didn’t have. Sephiroth whirled around to face Jenova as she bore down on him, ready to crush him with her full weight. He slid seamlessly into his trademark stance.

“Be gone!” he roared.

Supernova exploded outwards in an eye-searing burst of light, chasing every shadow out, colouring the world white, gushing from the cracked dome to reflect upon the belly of the clouds and bathe the entire above Plate Midgar in its radiance.

When it all faded, so had Jenova. The last traces of her corpse shrivelled and turned to ash.

Cloud knuckled his eyes, blinking the aftershock from his sight. He sniffled, not quite believing what had just happened.

After everything, the silence that fell on them was surreal. More surreal even, Midgar’s perpetual cloud cover, disturbed by Sephiroth’s incredible feat, started to timidly part. Rays of light slid through, dotting the grey skies above. Head bowed in contemplation, Sephiroth stood in the centre of the arena like a lone hero. Like the hero Cloud had always seen in him.

Gravel shifted. They all turned, fearing a new enemy.

At the top of the stands stood Tifa, an unconscious Aerith draped on her back. Nanaki wasn’t far. His tail glowed gently as he pressed against another person’s black-clad knees. The hand that had used him for support detached from his fur. The familiar silhouette stepped forward, straight into a beam of sunlight. It painted Rain in vibrant colour, lightening his hair to a brilliant gold, bringing the sky into his eyes, glistening over the single tear rolling on his cheek as he stared down at Sephiroth.

Distantly, Cloud heard himself bellow in euphoria. He felt Zack grasp his shoulders and laugh, exhilarated.

Sephiroth had paled, rigid with incredulity. Slowly, as if he didn’t dare to believe, he took a step forward. Rain lurched into action, scrambling down the stairs on unsteady legs, until they were both running at each other. They collided in the middle and sunk to their knees, clutching at blood-streaked skin with desperate hands.

They hadn’t sooner touched the ground that white flowers bloomed around them, expanding in ever-widening circles until the entire arena floor was covered with them. The clouds unravelled completely.

“Thank you,” Rain repeated over and over as he clung to Sephiroth, relief pouring from his eyes in rivers, washing away the pain and the anguish. “Thank you… Thank you…”

The words seemed too little, but all of their hearts echoed them.


	23. Epilogue

When Cloud was fifteen, he introduced his brother to his mother.

The memory of that day would keep Nibelheim’s tongues warm all throughout the winter that would follow. They would recount the tale of the military-looking car that climbed up to their village just as the coldest months of the year were settling in. They would recall their relief at seeing the beloved daughter of their mayor step out, months after her disappearance during the destruction of the reactor. They would remember seeing her helping another young woman down, a beautiful but wan-looking little thing who shivered in the cold air of the mountains.

But that’s when it got strange, the gossips would say, lowering their voices and widening their eyes.

Because then appeared the Strife son. And that would have been strange enough, wouldn’t it have been, because what wasn’t strange about the boy? Run off to Shinra, he had, and just in time for the civil war to break out. And that was the least of his offences, because there, behind him, was a _talking lion_.

And let’s not even mention, someone would inevitably gasp, looking close to fainting, let’s not even mention the dead body!

In fact, there was no dead body. But there was a stretcher with a human body on it, and a blanket covering its face. That stretcher was quickly ushered by Cloud and Tifa through the Strife’s front door, with Mrs. Strife staring down at it in as much bafflement and alarm as the rest of them. Then followed the unknown girl, and the lion, and the door closed.

Not too long after, the Lockhart girl bustled out again and hurried to reunite with her father. But she would not speak of the others, and so that was all that the villagers knew for a long time, for no one dared to go knock at the Strife house.

Meanwhile, inside, Cloud sat his mother down and explained how he had brought a second son home to her.

 

* * *

 

Rain slept a lot.

So did Aerith, at first. His revival had taken a lot out of the both of them. The house was small; in the old Nibelheim fashion, it had one main room that was at once living room, kitchen and bedroom. There were only two beds, so Aerith shared with Cloud’s mother and Rain got Cloud’s old single bed. Cloud and Nanaki settled on the floor by the stove.

Aerith recovered faster. When Tifa came to visit, Cloud’s mother would bundle Aerith in the warmest clothes she had, and the girls, Cloud and Nanaki would escape the stuffy house for a few hours. It wasn’t the best season to visit his home town and the villagers were forever prying into their business, but Nanaki’s presence encouraged them to keep their distance, and the company made even the dreary mountains seem more hospitable.

Sometimes, Rain would wake while they were gone. What he and their mother talked about during those times, Cloud didn’t know. But as the weeks passed, something fragile grew between them. Rain’s awkwardness, Mom’s bewilderment progressively made room to a tentative affection.

At dinner, they all gathered around the old TV set and listened religiously to the world moving on beyond the borders of the isolated little town.

Shinra was shutting down. All surviving Deepground members had been arrested. Rufus was the new CEO, but the old hierarchy was crumbling. The executives tried to cling to their positions, but the Turks initiated a company-wide cleanup that had countless heads rolling—sometimes literally. Reeve Tuesti was the notable exception. Not only was he found innocent of any wrong-doing to the people, he left Shinra of his own free will. He soon got busy creating a new organisation.

The WRO wouldn’t have been much, if it hadn’t been for the entirety of the First Class army leaving Shinra and funding its creation.

Many other employees followed. With its structure gutted, Shinra’s stranglehold on the economy collapsed. Rufus had his hands tied even holding on to Midgar’s historical company stronghold. The WRO rushed in to fill the governmental power gap. There were talks of holding elections, of having every major town get a representative in a WRO council. Wutai was offered a spot not as a member, but as an independent ally. Commerce had dived, but with optimism steadily rising higher than it had in decades, more and more fledgling entrepreneurs moved to pick up Shinra’s slack.

The WRO was still more military than civilian-based, but it was evolving. And in the meantime, no one minded that Tuesti’s main advisors were the four First Class heroes and leaders.

As for the so-called fifth commanding officer, no one had heard of him since Midgar was freed. Unlike the other four, he was rumoured to be a renegade Deepground member. And that was quite the fantastic story, right? Surely he was just an army fairytale.

 

* * *

 

Spring came to the mountain. On its heels followed a Shinra vehicle.

Finally, someone wanted to talk about the repairs to the reactor that Deepground had put on hold, the villagers said. But the two sharply dressed employees, one man and one woman, didn’t go for the mayor’s house. Instead they knocked at the Strife’s door.

The man who answered wasn’t one the villagers had been expecting. He was blonde and blue-eyed, very much of Strife blood; but he was much older than Cloud, and there was something older yet in the way he looked at the world.

Rain ignored the twitching curtains and the staring passersby.

“Tseng,” he said, leaning against the doorjamb.

“Rain,” the Turk returned.

He held up a brown envelope.

“As per our agreement.”

Rain opened it. Inside was an assortment of official papers: birth certificate, driving permit… He shook one out. The date of birth was his, though set back a good ten years. The name, though… He felt his eyebrows do something strange.

“What’s this?” he asked, pointing at the line that said “Rain Cloud Strife”.

“All information was provided by Sephiroth, as we were told you were unavailable. Is something inexact?”

He couldn’t help the half-smile that tugged at his lips.

“No. It’s fine.”

When he looked up, the Turks had made no move to go on their way.

“Thank you,” he said pointedly.

“Oh, Rain,” Mom scolded from the stove where she was cooking. “Don’t let them stand outside. They came from so far away to see you!”

After all this time, it felt foreign having her chide him for his manners. He smiled warmly at her, but didn’t budge. The others were out, and he didn’t want Turks anywhere near his mother. They had always been ambiguous allies.

“There was something we were hoping to discuss with you,” Tseng said all the same, jumping to the occasion. “If we could—”

“I’m not interested,” he cut in. “There is nothing Rufus could offer that would make me want to work for Shinra.”

Tseng looked a little put off at being so transparent. He was not, though. Rain just knew what to expect from Rufus, by now. The woman—Cissnei?—smiled.

“We figured that would be your answer, but the President insisted that we ask.”

“Yes,” Tseng said, straightening up his suit jacket. “Well, then. In that case, we shall take our leave. We still have matters to discuss with the mayor. Good day to you, Rain. Mrs. Strife.”

They gave polite nods and strode away.

“What elegant people,” Mom commented as she came closer to the door. “Oh, there is Cloud.”

Indeed Cloud was running up to them, Tifa, Aerith and Nanaki at his side.

“Was that Tseng?” he asked, worried.

Rain gently smacked the envelope on his head.

“Everything is fine.”

He looked up, taking in the blue skies, the mountain slopes all around them, the cosy houses. This was not the Nibelheim he had avoided at all costs back in his old world. This one had never burned. It was the village of his childhood, not an eerie facsimile.

Nevertheless, it had not been his home for a long time… if he could ever have called it that in the first place. He would always be glad of its continued existence, but he could be glad from afar.

“But I think it’s time to put an end to this vacation.”

 

* * *

 

As a gesture of goodwill—and because it could no longer afford to pay the bills for such a huge, empty building—Shinra had donated its Junon headquarters to be used as a base of operations for the burgeoning WRO. One sunny March afternoon, a military van unloaded from a freshly docked boat and made its meandering way up the city.

When it reached one of the upper levels, it turned into a parking lot. One solitary figure stood among the cars, stringing squats together like pearls on a necklace. At the sound of their engine, he whirled around and beamed. Rain barely had time to slide into a free space before he heard the back door slam open and pour his passengers onto the asphalt.

Aerith reached Zack first. He snatched her up and twirled her into the air, both of them laughing with abandon. He only let her go to close an arm around Cloud and Tifa each and lift them from the ground, grinning ear to ear. Even Nanaki earned himself a hug. In retrospect, Rain shouldn’t have been surprised when he caught up to them and was immediately swept in a crushing embrace. It still lit a gentle warmth in his chest. He leaned against his oldest friend, smiling.

“Man, I missed you guys!”

Zack backed up so he could loop an arm around Aerith, who was prompt to return the favour.

“Nice uniform,” Cloud said.

He was wearing beige instead of the old dark Shinra colours. The seams were a pale red and the boots brown and sturdy-looking. Rain was immediately hit by déjà vu, and a surge of fondness for Reeve. Zack grimaced.

“Yeah, it’s new. I keep telling the big boss it’s going to stain like crazy, but he seems to think that’ll prove we’re hard workers or something. I’m drawing the line at wearing the _beret_ , though.”

He scowled when they laughed at him, but couldn’t keep it going for long.

“You thinking of signing up, Cloud?”

Cloud exchanged a glance with Tifa. There hadn’t been much privacy in Mom’s tiny house, so Rain wasn’t surprised when Tifa said in his brother’s stead:

“We both will.”

“Yes!” Zack yelled, punching the air. “I was so hoping you’d say that. You too, right?”

He turned to Rain. He hated dimming the blinding light in his eyes, but he slowly shook his head. Cloud’s face fell just as hard as Zack.

“No?” he said, pleading.

Rain put a hand on his shoulder, doing his best to be reassuring.

“I won’t be far. I just… I’m done following orders. I was done a long time ago.”

“Even Sephiroth’s orders?” Cloud said, but there was a smile tugging at his lips.

Whatever he saw in his expression, he gave a faint laugh and shrugged.

“Okay, okay.”

Rain drew a self-conscious smile and looked at all three of them.

“You all do your thing. I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Too bad,” Zack sighed. “We could have used you. Genesis has been making noises about leaving, I think he’s sick of the military too. And if he goes… well, pretty sure Angeal will go with him. What about you, Nanaki?”

The lion’s tail twitched sardonically.

“I thank you for the offer, but I do not think I would fit in. In any case, it is time I returned to Cosmo Canyon. I have so much to tell my grandfather. But I would see you all settled in first, and I will come visit often.”

“Well, what are we all still doing outside, then? Let me show you in!”

He led the procession to the headquarters, Aerith at his arm.

Reeve Tuesti in person had left instructions at the check-in desk for them, and so they soon had visitor badges with a much higher security clearance than what the small cards were used to storing. Zack guided them on a grand tour of the place. Much had changed since they had used it as a running board for their attack on Midgar. The WRO logo was everywhere now, side by side with the First Class one. It was a much nicer place than the Midgar tower, with many windows offering a breathtaking view of the sea and of an unpolluted sky. From certain angles could also be caught the huge scaffolding crawling along the Mako Cannon. Currently being deconstructed, Zack said. Reeve’s stance was that the WRO couldn’t stand as a symbol of peace with that atrocity on its doorstep.

Cloud and Tifa stopped in the corridor to talk to some infantrymen about the enlistment process. Rain rocked back on his feet, trying to muzzle his impatience. An elbow nudged him in the ribs. He turned to face Zack’s knowing smile.

“Floor 36,” he whispered. “We’ll catch up later.”

Embarrassed at being read so easily, but grateful, Rain nodded and slinked away. He took the elevator up, employees giving him weird looks for his white badge and his absence of an escort.

There weren’t many offices on floor 36, and they were all helpfully labelled with shiny new plaques. However, before he could even take a step forward, the door at the very end of the corridor opened.

Angeal and Genesis stopped at finding him there. They glanced at each other, then resumed their walk. Rain moved in the opposite direction, mirroring their smiles. They parted to let him pass between them, and a gloved hand settled on each of his shoulders. He stopped at the end of the corridor and watched them step into the elevator. The doors closed on their warm eyes.

He sighed. This journey had cost him many friends, and he would never stop missing them. But he had gained some new ones, too. To know that he had played a part in making their future brighter… he could be proud of that, at least.

The office door had been left ajar. Taking a deep breath, he pushed it open. Orange sunlight flooded into the corridor, overriding the artificial lights. He stepped inside.

The room was large and painstakingly clean. Books lined up on large bookshelves, no trinket breaking their military order. The walls were bare. Two chairs faced the desk, the only place where clutter was allowed. It came in the form of paperwork, a computer, and expensive-looking writing implements. The office should have come across as cold, but behind the big leather armchair, a window bay opened on a balcony, allowing the setting sun to bathe the entire place in warm colours.

And on the balcony stood Sephiroth.

He was on the phone and hadn’t noticed Rain walking in, giving him a chance to drink him in.

There was a lot to look at. For starters, he wasn’t wearing his leathers, but the same uniform as Zack. The pant legs looked tighter on him and the jacket was draped over the armchair’s back, leaving him in a simple black T-shirt that stretched across his chest.

Blindsiding him even more effectively, his hair was tied back in a high ponytail.

He had never seen Sephiroth’s hair tied.

Sensing his stare, Sephiroth glanced at the doorway. He blanked visibly at finding him here.

Rain offered an awkward smile and stepped up to the desk, telegraphing that he would wait. He examined the work space without much interest until his eyes caught on an unexpected object next to the computer. From a photo frame, Angeal, Genesis and Zack grinned at him, their expressions deliberately foolish. Vincent lurked in the background, looking somewhat at a loss.

There was a click and the murmur of voice coming from the balcony ceased. Rain rounded the desk and crossed the bay door. The wind combed through his hair, soothing. Sephiroth watched him approach with hawk eyes.

“Hey.”

“Rain,” he breathed. “It is good to see you on your feet.”

He shrugged, sheepish.

“Yes, well… Good to be back, honestly.”

“You are fully recovered?”

“Yeah. Thank the Planet for enhanced healing, right? Turns out resurrection is not a walk in the park.”

Sephiroth nodded. The obvious enquiries about his health now exhausted, the conversation died a violent death. Which was sort of appropriate to the subject matter, except not, because that was morbid. Stop it, Rain. He cast desperately for something to say.

“Nice uniform,” he said, unintentionally channelling Cloud.

Was Sephiroth looking… self-conscious?

“Tuesti insists on it. At least in the beginning, he says. Seeing their commanders wear the uniform would supposedly create a stronger sense of unity.”

He was. Rain did his best to swallow his laughter.

“Reeve is putting you through the wringer, huh?”

Sephiroth granted him with an irritated look.

“He was your idea. I do hope you—”

“Nope. Not joining.”

Sephiroth’s lips pursed around what was no doubt a protest. He sighed instead.

“I had guessed you might not. Though if it would be of any sway in your decision, we could ensure that you wouldn’t be in my chain of command. A position close to Tuesti, perhaps. He would be happy to have you around.”

Rain shifted, surprised by the offer. He inwardly quivered at what might be motivating it. But if anything, Sephiroth looked grim.

“Um,” he said, unsure what else to vocalise.

Sephiroth cut his eyes to the side with a cynical twist of the lips.

“Or my very presence in the building could make you uncomfortable, which I would understand.”

“… Not really.”

“I caused your death, Cloud.”

The words dropped between them like stones. Stubborn, Rain pushed through.

“I don’t remember you having tentacles.”

He immediately figured it was the wrong thing to say. Sephiroth seemed on the verge of spitting something vicious about all the other unnatural body parts he did manage to develop. He inspired forcefully.

“You don’t need to check on me, Cloud. I know it’s a tall order to believe after what happened, but I am stable. I feel… more stable than I have ever been, to be honest.”

“I believe you.”

Sephiroth’s face said he didn’t believe _him_. Rain sighed and scratched at his neck, frustrated.

“Look, I’m not… the best at this stuff. But it’s not what this is about, is it? It’s about what happened when our minds…”

He trailed off, and Sephiroth didn’t appear in any hurry to complete the thought for him. His arms were crossed, and the flesh looked slightly paler where his fingers dug into the elbows. Nervous tell, he thought suddenly, Tifa whispering in his ear. Defensive behaviour. It helped strengthen his spine.

“I’m sorry.”

Sephiroth looked aghast.

“You? What do you have to be sorry for?”

“I hurt you.”

“You…”

Sephiroth drew back, trying to find his footing in this minefield of a conversation. He shook his head.

“It’s not like I didn’t know how you would react, Cloud. You’ve always made it clear your response to me was outside of both our controls. I didn’t expect anything else from you.”

“No, you don’t get it,” he insisted, frowning. “It wasn’t… I wasn’t…”

He wanted to explain, he _needed_ to explain, but it was so hard to find the words. He had trouble knowing what went on inside his own head most of the time, let alone pouring it out for another to see.

“I wasn’t afraid for me,” he awkwardly tried to forge ahead. “I was… _He_ only ever loved Jenova, you see?”

It was plain Sephiroth didn’t, but he was listening. It wasn’t that often that Rain was willing to open up, no matter how much he muddled it up.

“She was his only anchor, the thing his world revolved around. I mean…” He sucked in a breath. Spread his hands, helpless. “His love destroyed the world, Sephiroth.”

Understanding lit in Sephiroth’s eyes. With it came horror. He let his weight drop against the balcony’s railing.

“And I proved you right,” he said, voice bleak. “You knew in the instant she struck you down what would happen. What I would do. And I proved you right.”

Rain shuddered. He didn’t like to recall that moment; the overpowering certainty that instead of saving the world, his very existence had hastened its destruction. The cruel knowledge that it _was_ fate, after all. The soul-searing despair.

He shook it out. He had been so sure that it was the end, and yet…

“And then you came back,” he said.

Sephiroth’s head was down. His bangs hid his expression. When he gave no sign of having heard him, Rain cupped his face in his hands, lifted it so he could look him in the eyes.

“And then you came _back_ , Sephiroth.”

He gave a mirthless smirk.

“Strife brought me back.”

“You’re not listening.”

Feeling unexpectedly bold, he wound his fingers in Sephiroth’s hair and untied it. The silver strands dropped in the breeze, lit pink and gold by the setting sun. Sephiroth watched him, startled. He deposited the hair tie in his open hand.

“ _He_ wouldn’t have been caught dead with his hair tied. And he certainly never let anyone bring him back. He never gave anyone the power to.”

Sephiroth looked at the elastic band. Slowly, he got up. There was hope when he dared to catch his eyes. Rain nodded.

“So. Yeah. I believe you.”

He had never seen that smile on Sephiroth’s face. It was small, uncertain. It pushed his eyebrows forward and his flawless features askew, highlighting the shy teenager he might have once been, had not a war stolen the last dregs of his innocence. Above all, it was painfully, blindingly honest.

Rain’s throat closed.

For the first time since it had happened, he let himself linger on the memory of Sephiroth’s mind brushing against his. For the first time, he managed to push away the pain and the horror that had followed. Just before it had all gone to hell, there had been one moment, one single, glorious, perfect moment, when love had washed over him and swept him off his feet. It had wrapped him in its embrace, unapologetic and proud. He basked in the feeling now, and his eyes prickled with tears.

All this time, he had been frantically trying to understand the man standing before him today. But nothing could have shown him the way like this last piece of the puzzle: knowing, in his very soul, how deeply Sephiroth loved, as uncompromising in this as in anything else he did.

Sephiroth caught sight of his emotion.

“Cloud?” he said, worried.

He reached for him, though he didn’t quite dare touching him. Rain swallowed a sob.

“By the way,” he said. “I’ve been in love with you since I was twelve.”

The kiss took Sephiroth by surprise. Rain pushed through, uncaring. It didn’t take long for two hands to thread through his hair, pulling him into the most fervent kiss of his life. Sephiroth’s lips burned against his, devouring everything he offered and giving back without restraint.

This was what he had spent years mourning. This was what his foolish heart had refused to let go for so long. Just this once, he would let it be right.

Despite their distraction, the sound of the door opening managed to tear them apart for an instant. Zack gaped at them. Behind him, Aerith had both hands to her mouth, eyes alive with delight. Cloud was in the process of turning beet red. Tifa pushed to the tip of her toes to try and see what was happening over everyone’s shoulders.

“But I was…” Zack stammered. “I mean… I knocked?”

“And you can close the door behind you when you go,” Sephiroth said, unimpressed.

“Right.”

He made to back away, but stopped, eyes flitting between the two of them and Aerith.

“Guess I didn’t need to worry?”

“Goodbye, Zack.”

“Right!”

The door slammed. Sephiroth’s stern facade dropped and he smirked.

“Did we traumatise your brother?”

Rain squinted.

“He has a girlfriend,” he muttered, mulish, and tugged Sephiroth back down to swallow his startled laughter.

 

* * *

 

It wouldn’t be perfect. The Mako reactors were still operational, and it would be a few long years before the social situation was stable enough for an energy transition to be brought to the table. AVALANCHE was still out there, ready to loudly object to the delay.

It wouldn’t be perfect. But it didn’t have to be. Finally, he lived without fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a wild ride. Thank you to everyone who read and liked and commented this story, whether you were here from the start or you just discovered it. You made this a journey worth taking!
> 
> [My Tumblr](http://yourdragonisinanothercastle.tumblr.com/)


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